In an unusual move, the Crown attorneys in the Tim Bosma murder case have asked the Ontario attorney general to go straight to trial, skipping a preliminary hearing scheduled for September, the Hamilton Spectator has reported:
The Spectator has learned assistant Crowns Tony Leitch and Craig Fraser of Hamilton have applied for a direct indictment, which — if granted — would eliminate the need for a preliminary hearing.
Direct indictments are very rare, are only granted in the most serious and complicated cases and generally indicate the Crown believes it has a strong likelihood of conviction.
The preliminary hearing for Dellen Millard, 28, and Mark Smich, 26, is scheduled to begin Sept. 8 and is set to last eight weeks. Its purpose is to allow a judge to determine if there is enough evidence to commit the case to trial.
There are a number of upcoming court dates for Millard and Smich. While they are just brief appearances designed to deal with procedural issues, mostly by video, some interesting information does occasionally come out.
Here are the scheduled appearances including for the accused in a related weapons trafficking case :
June 26 Matthew Ward Jackson, charged with weapons trafficking and believed to have provided Dellen Millard with the gun he used to allegedly kill his father, will appear in person in Toronto court over a previous set of drug and weapon possession charges. Also appearing in person on those charges will be Joseph Michael Horth aka Spiken Mike.
July 7 Dellen Millard and Mark Smich will appear via video for the first degree murder of Laura Babcock. The charges against Millard for the murder of his father Wayne Millard will also be addressed.
July 7 Matthew Odlum and Matthew Wawrykiewycz on weapons trafficking charges allegedly related to the death of Wayne Millard. Unlike his co-accused, Matthew Ward-Jackson who is in custody, Wawrykiewych is out on bail, as is the third co-accused Matthew Odlum, whose case is scheduled for July 21.
August 7 Dellen Millard and Mark Smich will appear via video in Hamilton for the Tim Bosma Murder. Millard’s girlfriend, Christina Noudga, charged as an accessory after the fact, is also scheduled to make a video appearance.
August 8 Matthew Ward-Jackson trial for drug possession with intent to traffic begins in Toronto court. His lawyer for the case is Deepak Paradkar, who is defending Dellen Millard on all three of the murder charges against him.
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AnnBrocklehurst.com 
I find it really odd that ward and Millard are both being represented by paradkar. Isn’t that some sort of conflict?
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I find it odd too. At the very least, it’s the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Paradkar hasn’t returned my calls or emails about Ward-Jackson.
His last court appearance W-J’s behalf was April 14, the Monday after the news charges were laid against Millard. Maybe he won’t be representing him at the trial or it will get pushed due to a change of counsel.
W-J’s lawyer on the two sets of charges laid this year is Fariboz Davoudi. He declined to comment on how he came to have W-J as a client.
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