HAMILTON – One of the men accused of killing Tim Bosma placed an urgent order to have a black pickup truck painted red just days after the Hamilton man went missing, court heard Monday.
The owner of an autobody shop testified that Dellen Millard called him on May 8, 2013, wanting a rush job on the work and offering to drop off the truck the next day.
When asked if he wanted the interior repainted as well, Millard said he had already stripped it down and to leave it black, Tony Diciano told the court.
But before the work could be done, Millard left a message with the shop’s manager to cancel the order, Diciano said.
A longtime customer, Millard had never before requested that kind of work or with such a quick turnaround, the shop owner said.
“That is the first time,” he said.
Bosma disappeared on the night of May 6, 2013 after taking two strangers on a test drive of a black pickup truck he was trying to sell. They left sometime shortly after 9 p.m., the last time Bosma was seen alive. His body was found more than a week later burned beyond recognition.
Millard, 30, of Toronto, and Mark Smich, 28, from Oakville, Ont., have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.
The Crown alleges Bosma was shot inside his truck and later his body was burned in an incinerator.
One of Bosma’s neighbours said he saw a black pickup and another dark vehicle leaving a field near his home sometime between 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. the night Bosma disappeared, but he couldn’t see inside the vehicles.
Rick Bullmann said he initially thought someone had come to dump garbage there, but changed his mind when he saw the second vehicle.
“I thought it was odd to see two vehicles at once pulling out of that field,” he said.
When he heard of Bosma’s disappearance the next day, Bullmann called police, who then combed the field for clues, he said.
Millard’s arrest photos were shown in court during testimony from his arresting officer.
In one photo, he is sitting cross-armed on a chair against a grey backdrop. Others show close-ups of his many tattoos, including the words “ambition” and “discipline” in simple lettering on his left and right wrists.
The words “don’t you dare forget” and “I am heaven sent” are tattooed in an elaborate font on his inner forearms, and “desert Baja racing” is inked in block letters on his left bicep.
Sgt. Stuart Oxley of Hamilton police said he saw the wrist tattoos and part of the forearm ones when he arrested Millard on May 10, 2013.
Another officer who took part in the arrest said he found three black latex gloves and $350 in cash in Millard’s pocket at the time.
Another witness, Igor Tumanenko, previously told court about a test drive two men took in his Dodge Ram pickup on May 5, 2013 – one of them, Smich, has admitted to being in the vehicle that day.
Tumanenko also said he remembered seeing the word “ambition” tattooed on the taller man’s wrist, a clue that an investigator testified led to a breakthrough in the case.
Last week, a former intern at Millardair – an aviation company owned by Millard – testified he found Bosma’s truck inside an aircraft hangar owned by Millard at the Region of Waterloo International Airport.