Bosma Murder Trial 02.25.16 - Day 15

[SnooperDuper]

Didn't she say DM would earn 125K? I know one of the tweets said MillardAir would, but the rest of them said Millard.

Susan Clairmont ‏@susanclairmont 9m9 minutes ago
Dellen Millard drew a salary of $125,000.

A clarification - so there you go, the projected income for Millard Air in the year 2013 was the same amount as DM's salary. Any change left over?

 

[RandomName479]

I have never actually followed a trial before.....and these tweets and differing interpretations of the reporters is frustrating at times......In Canada, will we ever get a trial transcript? So many things are open to interpretation (ie: 125K income projection)

 

[Prairie_dawg]

Since the defense can crap on an average person seeming to require an EXPERT on everything before they can accept the logical conclusions of any sane person, it makes me want to ask defense to explain how MS was an expert on diesel trucks? Logically the book keeper can see more money going out than coming in, its not rocket science.

As for the $18k baja money it would not at all surprise me DM wanted WAY more money than just the sign up fee whatever that may be and it would not be logical for her to know the fee she just does what the boss says.

MOO Perhaps he wanted to buy souvenirs in Mexico to stash in the secret compartments, you know bobble heads or something.

 

[Deleted member 102539]

Susan Clairmont ‏@susanclairmont 54s54 seconds ago
Asked if she ever talked to Millard about his previous Baja race in Mexico. She says no. Happened in 2011. She saw invoice for it.

Really, DM's personal vacations are not a business expense!

The qualified accountant (sure we will hear of her/him) would have classified the supporting documents.

 

[billandrew]

In my opinion, the Crown wants to portray DM as a spendthrift whose financial situation was strained in the time leading up to TB's murder. The defense, on the other hand, wants to portray the opposite. This is all based on the questions each side asked the bookkeeper.

In reviewing the bookkeeper's testimony, I personally felt that the defense gained an edge on this particular subject. However, there did seem to be something disingenuous about the bookkeeper's testimony and her general behaviour in the courtroom. JMO. I wonder if the jury also picked up on this?

 

[6degrees]

I think DM's defence team has proven they have at times, an odd approach to their line of questioning...and my hope is that the members of the jury are fully aware of this...JMO

 

[Deleted member 102539]

Finances and LW:

I think, this management of MillardAir and Millard Properties stems from grandpa: The person who is wellknown to the boss and the collegues has the least insight and for the important finances and the complete accounting there is a hired company, obliged for confidentiality.
The clerk as you said earlier does what the boss wants, today this and tomorrow that, entries in the quickbook, do the stacker, brew coffee, buy paperclips. She costs only its intended low hourly wage. Afterwards the tax consultant does the real booking incl. consulting for an eightfold hourly wage but the quickbook saves him time (and MA costs).

 

[Kamille]

This defense isn't the most intelligent ever. I doesn't take a CA to figure out that 125K is not enough to run the hangar. It isn't even enough to pay the rent. Plus their is employees to pay, plus other general operating expenses. Even Joe Blow can do the math and say there is a lot more going out then coming in. Now let's pay for a truck out of that good luck.

Can we hope for an accountant on the jury?

 

[loveisthemovement]

An honest question - if you were keeping books for a business and the boss was arrested and charged with murder, would you quit the job? If you didn't quit, what would make you stay?

 

[JPC]

An honest question - if you were keeping books for a business and the boss was arrested and charged with murder, would you quit the job? If you didn't quit, what would make you stay?

I have worked in smaller sized companies where my employer and I have also become friends over time. Just because someone is charged with the crime, doesn't mean that they are guilty. I would need some pretty convincing evidence about their involvement before I would turn my back on someone who had been good to me.

 

[raining]

An honest question - if you were keeping books for a business and the boss was arrested and charged with murder, would you quit the job? If you didn't quit, what would make you stay?

Ohhh, good question!

I personally would quit the job as being associated with murder is so not something I want to be. I would also approach the police and offer my insight before they came to me.

I think the only thing that would make me stay is the depth of my relationship and/or my belief in my boss's innocence if that makes sense. But my gut instinct is that I would not consider myself an employee of them any longer.

 

[billandrew]

An honest question - if you were keeping books for a business and the boss was arrested and charged with murder, would you quit the job? If you didn't quit, what would make you stay?

It's amazing what people will do for a reliable pay cheque, and maybe even a little money under the table.

 

[loveisthemovement]

I have worked in smaller sized companies where my employer and I have also become friends over time. Just because someone is charged with the crime, doesn't mean that they are guilty. I would need some pretty convincing evidence about their involvement before I would turn my back on someone who had been good to me.

Would you consider a difference in the type of charge? ie: petty theft vs murder?

 

[JPC]

In my opinion, the Crown wants to portray DM as a spendthrift whose financial situation was strained in the time leading up to TB's murder. The defense, on the other hand, wants to portray the opposite. This is all based on the questions each side asked the bookkeeper.

In reviewing the bookkeeper's testimony, I personally felt that the defense gained an edge on this particular subject. However, there did seem to be something disingenuous about the bookkeeper's testimony and her general behaviour in the courtroom. JMO. I wonder if the jury also picked up on this?

Although MSM and DM himself have created the persona of wealthy Aviation Scion, I have continued to wonder if his finances were what people assumed. In every photo that I have seen his possessions are all old and used (boat, vehicles, helicopters, snowmobiles etc). Recent photos of the interior of his Yukon show filth and wear and tear. His residential, rental and farm properties are messy, unkempt and dumpy. It looks like no $$ was spent on updates or maintenance. Everything looks past its prime. Maybe he isn't up on appearances but his letters from jail illustrate otherwise. My FIL lived very close to his Markland Estates home and it was definitely the dumpiest property in the neighborhood.

 

[Ironworker736]

Wasn't it mentioned earlier that a portion of the $3.7M loan went towards the completion of the hangar? If so, I wonder how much was left over.

ETA - http://www.thespec.com/news-story/6...-trial-hears-about-accused-killer-s-finances/

A former bookkeeper for Millardair took the stand Wednesday and said he had taken out a $3.7-million loan to get the hangar built and opened, but it never — ever — made a dime.

 

[6degrees]

An honest question - if you were keeping books for a business and the boss was arrested and charged with murder, would you quit the job? If you didn't quit, what would make you stay?

I think bearing in mind that in Ontario at least, LE and the Crown have to have a reasonable amount of evidence against someone to lay charges, I would quit as quickly as I reasonably could. This woman, LW, was only working 10 hours/month for MA so I don't think her ability to feed her family or pay her mortgage is resting on this income. I would imagine that under those circumstances others might feel compelled to stay on. From a moral perspective in terms of letting down an employer, I don't think the day-to-day successful running of MA (which wasn't successful or even operational) was resting its heavy weight on her shoulders......so why stay on? why visit DM multiple times in lock-up? why SMILE at him today?

 

[Kamille]

Well if you really put together some of her testimony....

Susan Clairmont ‏@susanclairmont 8m8 minutes ago
They do contract work. She did bookkeeping for other companies. One of her clients was Millardair. Knew of Dellen Millard in 2001.

Susan Clairmont ‏@susanclairmont 6m6 minutes ago
She met Dellen later than that. Jan. 2012 she started to do Millardair books. Met Dellen before that "a handful of times."

***She "knew" of DM in 2001, met him a handful of times prior to being asked to do the bookkeeping in Jan 2012. So how did she "know" him?

Williams says she was paying the company's taxes.
by Adam Carter 2:47 PM

"I would not personally pay, or write cheques for anything," Williams says. Now she says taxes were done by a chartered accountant -- which is contrary to what she said a couple of minutes ago.
by Adam Carter 2:49 PM

***So was there an accountant or not? Has she been coached by "someone"?

"When was the last time you personally saw Mr. Millard?" Moodie asks. "May 3, 2013," she responds. It was at the hangar in Waterloo.
by Adam Carter 2:51 PM

Court now hearing about the invoice for the Eliminator. Williams says it didn't stick out for her.
by Adam Carter 3:02 PM

Moodie asks to address Justice Goodman without the jury in the room. They're led out.
by Adam Carter 3:03 PM

***Did she say something different about that invoice before and was now starting to come off as more of a hostile witness who didn't want to say anything incriminating? What did the Crown need to ask the judge at that moment? And why did it end the court day and result in them spending another hour on legal arguments this morning? Did she ask DM what the incinerator was for and he told her something that, once again is being argued away? So no one is allowed to testify as to what they were told about the incinerator's purpose?

Then she comes back today after all the arguments and says...


Feb 25 2016 11:05 AM Williams says she still sees Madeleine Burns sometimes to talk business. The last time she saw Millard, she says, was Sept. 2014. He was arrested in 2013.

Feb 25 2016 11:05 AM "I think I visited him maybe six times," Williams says.

***Which contradicts what she said yesterday about May 3rd, 2013 being the last time she saw him.

Feb 25 2016 11:01 AM Williams says she "still does a little bit of work" for MillardAir and Millard properties, gathering paperwork for a chartered accountant. She's being paid hourly, doing about 10 hours a month.

So now she gathers paperwork for an actual accountant? Does she still enter it in the books? Does she still have access to the bank account balance as she claimed yesterday she had before DM was arrested?

So why wouldn't DM get a couple of personal acquaintances (we still haven't heard from her husband...yet...but I assume we will since his name was included in the phone evidence) in to the hangar for such mundane things as IT, security and bookkeeping. Especially acquaintance bookkeepers who won't ask questions about incinerators and help him get those expenses past his father? Seems to me that she's still "loyal" to him for some reason $?

It's all very suspect

MOO

 

[Kamille]

an honest question - if you were keeping books for a business and the boss was arrested and charged with murder, would you quit the job? If you didn't quit, what would make you stay?

$

moo

 

[JPC]

Would you consider a difference in the type of charge? ie: petty theft vs murder?

No, I don't think that I would. If I wasn't close to the person it would be a different story and I would likely asked to be packaged out.

I just had this discussion this morning with a friend who had a colleague who was a friend and was accused of sexual harassment in the workplace. He was let go from his job and ostracized by everyone from colleagues, neighbors, friends etc. LE determined fairly quickly that he had not committed the act and the accuser admitted embellishment. He wasn't even there that day. Everyone rushed to judgement. However now that the seed has been planted he will always be the guy who was accused of sexual harassment and people feel that if there is smoke, there is fire. My friend feels terrible now because she turned her back on him for no other reason than the accusation.

I can't speak for today's witness reasoning for staying on because I don't know her history with the family. She isn't suspected of any wrongdoing. I only know what I have heard about the case and the conclusions that I have been drawing myself.

 

[Kamille]

I have worked in smaller sized companies where my employer and I have also become friends over time. Just because someone is charged with the crime, doesn't mean that they are guilty. I would need some pretty convincing evidence about their involvement before I would turn my back on someone who had been good to me.

I think it's been available to her in MSM for 3 years and yet it appears she's still remaining "loyal" to him. I get what you are saying, but IMO too many people choose to turn a blind eye to the obvious with personal friends/family members. Perhaps it's a coping mechanism?

MOO