Jury begins deliberation in murder trial for presumed death of Laura Babcock
TORONTO — The case against two men accused of killing a young Toronto woman whose body has not been found was put to the jury on Tuesday with the judge reminding jurors to rely on the circumstantial evidence they heard during the trial.
The instructions from Superior Court Justice Michael Code capped the nearly eight-week trial of Dellen Millard and his friend Mark Smich, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the presumed death of Laura Babcock, who disappeared five years ago.
“When you first start, it is unwise to take a firm, rigid decision,” Code told jurors. “You are judges, not advocates for one side or the other.”
Code’s 350-page instruction to the jury over more than three days involved a comprehensive recap of the evidence and positions of the parties. The case, he said, hinges upon a “large and complex” body of circumstantial evidence about whether Babcock is dead and if Millard and Smich caused her death.