HAMILTON — The former girlfriend of a man accused of murder in the death of Tim Bosma says she was asked to tamper with evidence through secret letters he sent her from jail.
Christina Noudga told a Hamilton court she exchanged many letters with Dellen Millard while he was in jail awaiting trial.
Millard, 30, of Toronto, and Mark Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Bosma’s death.
READ MORE: LIVE-BLOG: Ex of Dellen Millard continues testimony in Tim Bosma murder trial
Bosma vanished on May 6, 2013, after taking two strangers for a test drive in the truck he was trying to sell.
The Crown alleges Bosma was shot at point-blank range in his truck and his body later burned in an animal incinerator known as “The Eliminator.”
In one letter, Millard, who admitted in court to being the author of the letters, asks Noudga to try to persuade one of his friends, Andrew Michalski, to change what he’d told police.
“He was obviously asking me to tamper with evidence and testimony in order to protect him,” Noudga told court, adding she thought about doing it, but never went to Michalski to get him to change his story.
Michalski previously testified to hearing Millard and Smich planning to steal a pickup truck.
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“Andrew (Michalski) needs to say I showed him a picture of a truck and asked who’s I should BUY,” read a passage from one of Millard’s letters to Noudga. “That he changed it to steal because before the interrogation began, cops told him they wanted to hear about the planning of a truck robbery and he wasn’t going home until he told them what they wanted to hear.”
Millard wrote similar passages in several other letters to Noudga, trying to get her to talk to Michalski.
Police found the letters in Noudga’s room when she was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact to Bosma’s murder. She faces trial in November.
READ MORE: Ex of accused in Tim Bosma murder testifies she helped move key pieces of evidence
Millard also blamed his co-accused for Bosma’s death.
“It was Mark (Smich) who f–ked up a truck robbery, not me,” Millard wrote to Noudga. “And just because I helped clean up Mark’s mess, does not mean I should also pay for it.”
At the end of many of his letters, Millard wrote: “Destroy this letter now!!!!!”
Noudga said she didn’t destroy the letters because they were sentimental and she was in love with him.
“Now I realize that was a stupid thing to do,” Noudga said after telling the court she never thought about turning over the letters to police.
“I agree now it would have helped police.”
Millard also said he would help Michalski find a lawyer if he agreed to change his story.
“Most of the evidence points me towards me going to buy a pickup (truck). This will result in an aquitall (sic) and I’m a free man. But there’s a problem and it’s the testimony of Andrew Michalski,” Millard wrote in another letter.
And in yet another passage, Millard thanks Noudga for remaining silent, something he said both Michalski and Smich should have done.
“And treacherous Mark; got himself charged by trying to put it on me. These are the most lethal pieces currently played against me. Anyways, I’m absorbing it all; learning. Strategizing, evolving. I’ve had a lot of time for self reflection … there are many things I would do differently.”
READ MORE: Dellen Millard expressed sympathy for Tim Bosma’s family days after he vanished, court hears
Earlier in the day, Noudga told court she wiped her fingerprints off a trailer she helped park at Millard’s mother’s home in Kleinburg, Ont., hours after finding out Millard had been arrested in the disappearance of the Hamilton father.
Police have testified they found Bosma’s truck in a trailer at the home after receiving a call about a “suspicious trailer” that might be related to the case.
Noudga said she went to the home of Madeleine Burns, Millard’s mother, the night of his arrest. She said the two booked a hotel room anticipating a media crush.
“We get back to the hotel, open up a bottle of wine and we start brainstorming – what’s in the trailer? What’s he in trouble for?”
“It led us to believe the truck was in the trailer,” Noudga told court.
She has testified she helped Millard park the trailer at Burns’s house the night before. In the hotel room, she said, they realized both had touched the trailer.
READ MORE: Dellen Millard shot and killed Tim Bosma, co-accused’s girlfriend testifies in court
“We kind of sit there,” she said. “Should we go back? Should we do something? Both of us said ‘yeah, let’s wipe down the areas we touched.”‘
“And that’s exactly what happened.”
Noudga said she and Burns drove back to the house in the middle of the night, put on dish gloves and wiped down the outside of the trailer to remove their fingerprints.
Then they returned to the hotel room and drank “copious amounts of wine.”
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