Serial killer Dellen Millard convicted in prison assault

It's vintage Dell.

Serial killer Dellen Millard once again appeared to be trying to tamper with evidence as he was found guilty this week in connection to a prison stabbing.

Demonstrating the power he tries to wield over others, self-represented Millard called the victim to the witness stand. The reluctant man - who could have died of his injuries - testified Millard in fact saved his life that day.

It was a strange take on the violent attack and one the judge didn't buy.

Millard, convicted of the first-degree murders of Ancaster family man Tim Bosma, girlfriend Laura Babcock and his own father Wayne Millard, was convicted of assault causing bodily harm Monday in the Ontario Court of Justice in Napanee. Justice Geoffrey Griffin found him guilty in connection to the shanking of a fellow inmate at Millhaven Institution, where Millard, 37, is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 75 years.

The latest addition to Millard's criminal record comes just days before he is to go before the Court of Appeal for Ontario to appeal all three of his murder convictions and sentences. Mark Smich, his one-time friend and co-accused in the murders of Tim and Laura, is also appealing during the same hearing that begins March 13.

Millard and another offender named Clayton Sumner were charged after the stabbing at Millhaven on July 11, 2021. They each also faced a charge of possessing a weapon, which was a 3.5-inch, jail-made metal stabbing weapon."

Millard appeared by video from prison and represented himself, according to the CBC. He pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Millard and Sumner attacked a prisoner named Sean Trites, who was cut on his neck, shoulder and abdomen.

A doctor testified the injuries were potentially life-threatening.

Sumner pleaded guilty to his assault causing bodily harm charge. The Crown dropped the weapons charge against Millard.

The judge noted Trites was very reluctant to testify, according to the CBC. He initially refused to leave his cell and would not be cross-examined by the Crown.

The judge said he carefully watched video of the attack and was certain Sumner did the actual stabbing. Millard, however, pushed Trites toward Sumner, then stood behind him, blocking his escape.

Mr. Millard was party to the offence of aiding Mr. Sumner in the assault causing bodily harm," the judge said.

Sentencing will take place in April.

In May 2013, Millard and Smich shot Tim and burned his body after test driving a truck Tim was selling.

At their trial in 2016, the jury saw letters illegally smuggled out of jail from Millard to one of his girlfriends, Christina Noudga. In those missives - which Noudga said she kept because they had sentimental value - Millard instructed her to tamper with evidence by convincing key witnesses to change their testimony.

For years, Millard, who grew up wealthy, held a strange power over his group of misfit and delinquent friends. Especially Smich. He directed them to go on missions" - crimes that ran the gamut from stealing plants from a nursery, to car and truck thefts, to murder.

It would not be a stretch to believe - as Griffin's decision suggests - that Millard influenced the stabbing victim before he hit the witness stand.

Millard has done it before. And with a lifetime of prison ahead of him - unless he works a miracle at the Court of Appeal - he may do it again.

Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com