Dark Ambition

by Ann Brocklehurst

  “Our bond was stronger,” Smich agrees.

  Fraser points out some more texts from early 2012. Millard was messaging Smich about how big missions would lead to way bigger payoffs. “I think we can grab that truck I need before I go to the states next, they are common enough it doesn’t have to be that one, it just has to be a dodge 3500, red’s just a bonus,” he writes on March 24.

  “Yea we need a proper plan tho so lets work on that,” Smich replies. “We can’t make any mistakes.”

  He tells Fraser that they floated many ideas on how to steal the Dodge Ram 3500.

  “But you know, Mr. Smich, we heard your evidence that Schlatman showed you how to do it. It’s not hard. It doesn’t take fifteen months to execute the theft of a truck.”

  Fraser brings up the gun, which he says introduced an element of lethal force into the plan. He shows an April 2012 text Millard sent Smich from Las Vegas, a photo of bullets, with the message “five fingered you some practice ammo.”

  “A little bit of ammo gun talk between you and Dellen Millard. You’re cool with it,” says Fraser. “That suggests you had a comfort level with firearms and ammunition?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The ammo text conversation took place about a month after Smich had photographed Millard’s newly acquired Walther PPK.

  “Some people would think that that’s a glorification of violence,” Fraser tells Smich.

  “I didn’t think that at the time.”

  “It shows that you, as well, Mark Smich, were good with it. You were helping him find ammo for the Walther that he bought from your good buddy Iisho.” Fraser’s referring to Matthew Ward-Jackson, the alleged gun dealer.

  “I wasn’t against it. I thought it was interesting. It wasn’t meant to harm anybody. I don’t know.”

  Fraser points out that Smich’s gun fascination was still going strong six months later, when he took another photo of the Walther with his newly acquired iPad.

  “Do you think that’s a suggestion that you’re okay with violence?” Fraser asks.

  “Just me being foolish,” says Smich.

  “You see the photo there, Mr. Smich, of those bullets? Was one of those used to kill Tim Bosma?”

  “I don’t know, sir.”

  “Maybe,” says Fraser. He pauses for effect before showing a text sent from Smich to Millard in May 2012: “I’m fuckin hungry now for a mission too and I know I’ve been slackin on that lately.”

  “Your hunger for a mission,” says Fraser, “I take it would be in furtherance of stealing a Dodge 3500?”

  “No, I was broke and I needed money.”

  “Again, it’s this mission, it’s this Dodge 3500?”

  “No, there are lots of other missions.”

  By May 2012, Fraser tells the court, the homemade incinerator project was well underway. Schlatman’s handiwork—the rocket ship–like device he created from fifty-gallon steel drums—was ready for testing. Millard texts Smich, “We go do incinerator, cool?”

  “Yo I’m down bro I would even say come sooner than that. We can chill and talk about other shit as well.”

  Fraser asks where they were going to see the homemade incinerator, at the farm or the hangar.

  “Uh, I assume it would be at the hangar,” says Smich. “I’m not sure of the events that happened that day.”

  “You had the truck, you had the gun, and you had the bullets, but you didn’t have the incinerator. And you’re starting to get that phase of the plan in place…to check things out to see if you can execute your plan.”

  “No, sir, it was for garbage.”

  “So you’re good leaving your house at ten o’clock at night to go to the incinerator to burn garbage?”

  Fraser shows a text from June 6. Smich has been researching incinerators. “I’m lookin at a mobile one right now. Some chopping wood [sic] be necessary,” he tells Millard.

  “So you’re putting your two cents’ worth in on this homemade incineration device,” says Fraser. “You don’t have an interest in an incineration device because it burns garbage.”

  Smich says he worked for Millard, the implication being he did his friend’s and boss’s bidding.

  “Mr. Smich, it’s just another phase of the plan…and that’s why you showed a keen interest.”

  Fraser asks what he meant when he said chopping would be necessary. “Dismemberment?”

  “No, sir.”

  The text messages now skip ahead two months to August 20, 2012.

  Millard texts Smich “35,” short for 3500, and “I want a cop bicycle.”

  “Done. I think I know a spot,” says Smich.

  “No more money bro, we take what we want from the source.”

  Okay, replied Smich. He told Millard he would be seeing Ward-Jackson the following night. “We will get everything done. I got 35 stuff already here with me.”

  “Things are happening,” says Fraser. “The 3500 is being scoped and potentially taken.”

  He asks Smich what he means by “35 stuff,” to which Smich answers, “Stuff for scoping.”

  “What did you need to scope, besides a pair of eyes?” asks Fraser. “What is the other 35 stuff?”

  “Probably bolt cutters, change of clothes.”

  Fraser asks Smich if he was Millard’s connection to Matthew Ward-Jackson.

  “Yes, I introduced them through drugs.”

  “But you’ll agree with me, we’re not talking drugs here. We’re talking about stealing a 3500.”

  Smich agrees.

  Late summer 2012 is also when the newly bought incinerator was moved from the hangar to its permanent home at the farm. On September 5, Millard texts Smich, “Let’s reach Waterloo, pick up your girlfriend, move the BBQ into the barn (need some things from home depot for that) and do more equipment painting, then scope 35 at night.”

  “Mr. Smich,” says Fraser, “things are happening, plans are being made….Part of that plan is the incineration of the man you target for the theft of the truck.”

  Smich says, no, the incinerator had to be moved because people were coming to look at the hangar.

  “I want to ask you some questions about that Eliminator,” says Fraser. “This is a $22,000 killing machine, isn’t it?”

  Smich says Millard told him he bought the incinerator to get into the pet cremation business with his uncle.

  Fraser reminds him that Millard’s uncle, Robert Burns, testified that he wanted nothing to do with his nephew. “He made that one hundred percent clear to everyone in this room. And you’re saying you just took that explanation at face value?”

  Fraser has more questions about how they got Tim Bosma’s body into the incinerator, given that the burn chamber opening was four feet six inches above the trailer floor and its opening was eighteen inches by twenty-four.

  “Mr. Smich, it’s a two-man job. Tim Bosma was six feet tall, a hundred and seventy pounds. The two of you put Mr. Bosma together in the Eliminator.”

  Sharlene Bosma covers her face with her hands.

  —

  ON OCTOBER 1, 2012, Smich texted Millard a photo of a pickup truck with the caption “3500 Tow truck.”

  “We’re now in October, and the two good thieves are having a lot of trouble stealing a 3500,” says Fraser. “My suggestion is it’s because this was planned with a difference. Because the plan with a difference was the killing of a human being and the incineration of a human being.”

  Smich insists that it’s simply because they hadn’t found the right truck.

  On October 8, he texted Millard, “It’s all about me, you, myself and my greed get TXDeed. we be taking anything we need that means everything, indeed.”

  “Nice rhyme,” replies his friend.

  Fraser asks why they needed so many plans and ideas to steal a truck. “It’s pretty darn simple to put your mind to stealing a truck if you want to steal a truck. It’s not that complicated.”

  “I’d agree with that,” says Smich. He explains that their
target trucks kept being moved or getting locked up.

  “You never had that problem with the Bobcat, the trailer, floor polisher,” Fraser says. “The common denominator is it was done and you didn’t get caught. So on that score, if you want to say it, you were pretty good at thieving, and Dellen Millard was pretty good at thieving.”

  Smich bobs his head in agreement in his cartoonish way.

  “You know, Mr. Smich, you’re very quick to pin everything on Dell,” Fraser continues. “But you were chiming in with your suggestions. You were all in on this.”

  “Well, I knew what I wanted.”

  “You’re not Dellen Millard’s patsy, Mr. Smich. You’re his partner in crime.”

  Fraser shows a text exchange from April 6, 2013. “Reminds me,” writes Millard. “Shane’s starting modification on the white van for search and capture missions.”

  “I love search and destroy,” Smich messages back. “Lol.”

  Fraser points out that this was the white Millardair company van, the one Millard gave to Villada when he took the red truck.

  “Search and destroy is part of a video game,” says Smich. “The one where you plant a bomb.”

  “There is nothing in that message that even hints at a video game,” says Fraser. “Real-life Shane, real-life white van, real-life search and capture. You’re not responding with a video reference.”

  Fraser shows another text, this one from April 16. “They chose to call me MARK at birth, but they should’ve called me MERK. All I do is put in work, no fun and games, til someones hurt.”

  “MERK” means kill in street slang, says Fraser. The rhyme is “a clear expression of violence…wanting to hurt people.”

  “No, it’s an art form,” says Smich.

  Fraser points out that Smich was aware things had moved beyond that. “Your good friend Iisho [Ward-Jackson] selling a handgun to your best friend, Dellen Millard,” he says. “What did you think your best friend, Dellen Millard, was doing when he bought a handgun and ammunition, and you helped him?”

  “I’m not sure what I thought at that time.”

  “You didn’t ask him because you knew.”

  “When Dell had a question, I would research things. It’s just I did what he wanted. I didn’t question him….Like I said, I’d been in the drug game for a little while. I don’t know how to explain it.”

  Fraser shows a text sent from Smich to Millard on April 26, 2013: “its almost mission time.;)”

  He brushes off the anticipated objections from Smich. “Yes, there were many missions. I know there are many missions, Mr. Smich, but at this time the only one you are referring to is the 3500. What other mission were you running at this time?”

  Smich begins a rambling explanation that there were lots of missions: big missions, small missions. It was just a word. The jury has heard this from him many times already.

  “It has nothing to do with the 3500, is that your evidence?” asks Fraser. “You were able to tell us about many of your missions with some detail. If it’s not the Dodge 3500 you’re talking about…what is it?”

  “I can’t be specific. We’ve done so much stuff together. Like I said, ‘mission’ was a very common thing between us.”

  Fraser shows texts from April 27. “Headed to Waterloo, figure out BBQ situation for this week,” Millard tells Smich.

  Smich contends that this refers to a real barbecue Millard would be hosting.

  “No, it doesn’t, Mr. Smich.”

  “As you can see, there’s a comma there,” says Smich, referring to the comma after “Waterloo” in Millard’s text. The man who regularly says “I seen” is using a punctuation excuse. He explains that the comma is separating two different ideas: a trip to Waterloo and a genuine poolside barbecue. Earlier in the trial, Ravin Pillay had questioned Andrew Michalski about a barbecue his client had indeed hosted at his Maple Gate home on May 1.

  Fraser bats away Smich’s excuses. “He is telling you, Mr. Smich, his partner in crime, ‘We’ve got to figure out this incinerator.’ ”

  At the same time he’s communicating with Smich, Millard is also texting Schlatman about the incinerator. “Where’s the big generator?” he asks him. “Unless you remember putting it back on the BBQ, it should be at the hangar.”

  “Last I saw generator was in corner by incinerator in the barn,” says Schlatman. Then he texts later, “Just remembered generator is out with excavator. Using it to run air compressor.”

  Fraser points out that a generator is not needed for a backyard barbecue. He shows texts from May 2 after Millard’s party. “I gotta be in Waterloo tomorrow morning, planning on checking you before 4 pm, work on the mission,” Millard writes.

  Fraser says this is the 3500 mission slated for the upcoming weekend.

  Smich denies it.

  Fraser shows a text from Smich: “Ok it’s fireworks tomoro night.”

  “ ‘Fireworks’ meaning running your mission with Mr. Millard,” says Fraser.

  Smich claims he meant actual fireworks with his friend Alex and Alex’s girlfriend, Liz.

  “May 2 or May 3 is not known as a traditional fireworks weekend in this country,” says Fraser. “Let’s look at the next day, Friday, May 3.”

  “Can Marlena reach and chill with Pedo,” Smich texts Millard. “Can you bring me gloves and tape and maybe an orange guy?”

  Smich says he needed gloves and tape because he was painting at the time, and explains that an “orange guy” is an oxycodone pill.

  Then the 3500 mission gets bumped, first from Friday to Saturday, then to Sunday, and finally to Monday.

  Fraser describes the scene at Maple Gate over the weekend as Smich and Millard scan online ads. “You are targeting people and their trucks. That’s what you’re doing,” he says. “Do you remember if you targeted [Tim Bosma] or if Millard targeted him, or if you both happened to find the same ad?”

  “I don’t want to use your words ‘targeting him.’ We were looking for a vehicle to steal,” Smich replies.

  “I am going to use the word, Mr. Smich,” says Fraser. “He didn’t know you two guys were going to walk up his driveway, and that was the last time he would be seen or heard from. It was just the two of you working together on May 6 when all this happened. Somewhere along the way, someone got shot, killed, and burned. Executed with chilling perfection, Mr. Smich, by the two of you working together. Isn’t that what happened, Mr. Smich? It sure looks like it.”

  Smich looks very nervous as Fraser displays texts from Saturday, May 4. Millard writes, “change of plans, meet up with you tomorrow [Sunday] at noon. We’ve got 2 appointments to make.” Then Millard leaves to switch vehicles with Javier Villada at the shopping mall.

  Fraser says a Saturday test drive wasn’t convenient for Tim Bosma, who had weekend plans.

  Smich replies that it was Millard in control of the burner phone, setting up appointments. He insists the plan was just to go and scope out vehicles.

  Sunday began with a text from Millard reading, “yeaow, you up negro? Mission day.” It was followed in short order by another text: “reaching you now, eta 20 mins, bring change of clothes.”

  “The plan wasn’t just to scope. The plan was to steal, to kill, and to burn,” says Fraser. “It would have been Igor, but he was a little too much six foot four, a little too much Israeli army, for your liking. So then you picked the nice guy, Mr. Tim Bosma, on the sixth.”

  Fraser tells Smich he’s skeptical about the explanation he gave Thomas Dungey concerning the need for a change of clothes. “It would look a little funny if we showed up in black,” is what he recalls Smich saying. But Fraser argues that it makes no sense to show up as Dellen Millard and Mark Smich, scope Igor Tumanenko’s truck, and then, if they like it, change into black clothes and take it later on.

  Instead of providing an explanation, Smich digresses about the need to check for GPS tracking devices and coming back to scope the truck again a few days later. He appears not to realize that this
plan would eliminate the need for a change of clothes.

  Fraser says the reason Smich and Millard weren’t shy about showing their faces was that Tumanenko was intended as their victim that Sunday. He would be dead, unable to identify them.

  Smich continues to protest as Fraser explains, “A change of clothes is necessary because there’s going to be a bloody mess. And that’s what happened.”

  —

  CRAIG FRASER REMINDS the court of some testimony from almost four months earlier in the trial. According to Sharlene Bosma, her husband was concerned about the test drive before it even began. The buyer was two hours late, and it was getting dark out. Tim asked Sharlene, “When they come, should I go with them?”

  “Yes, you should,” she said, “because we want the truck to come back.”

  Fraser says, “It is clear he was on high alert and suspicious.” Smich’s sketchy behaviour would have added to the anxiety. Fraser asks him what excuse Millard used to get Smich out of the Dodge truck and into the driver’s seat of the Yukon, still parked in the field with its lights out. Smich can only recall the ruse about the fictional friend who couldn’t find Tim Hortons.

  After suggesting that Bosma was likely made uneasy by the Yukon parked in the dark field, Fraser brings up the testimony of Rick Bullmann, the neighbour who saw two vehicles pull out in quick succession from his father’s field. He says Bullmann did not observe a U-turn being made, only two trucks leaving the field at the same time.

  As he dissects Smich’s story about the fictional friend in the field and where exactly the two vehicles were in relation to each other, Fraser finally reveals the prosecution’s theory: that the murder took place in the field adjacent to the Bosma home. “That’s where you and Mr. Millard shot and killed Mr. Bosma,” he declares. “That’s what happened, Mr. Smich.”

  Fraser implies that the story Smich has told the jury, of a thirty-eight-minute test drive to Bobcat of Brantford, is absurd. “Nobody goes for a test drive for over an hour to another city,” he says.

  “There never was a test drive. Mr. Bosma was killed in that field. The two of you had to do some repositioning of the body at Bobcat of Brantford.”