Dispatches from the Tim Bosma murder trial: Day 1

There were a few things that stood out for me on the opening day of the trial of Dellen Millard and Mark Smich for the murder of Tim Bosma:

The totality of the Crown’s opening statement laying out the case the prosecution will work to prove. Read summary of the statement

Sharlene Bosma describing how Tim was pacing up and down wondering where the potential truck buyers were and why they came so late. He asked his wife if he should go with them. “I said, ‘yes you should because we want the truck to come back,'” Sharlene testified as she choked back tears.

Just a few minutes before, assistant Crown attorney Tony Leitch had asked her, “I know you’re not a big car person but what do you know about the rims?”

“They were all the same,” said Sharlene to laughter in the courtroom. Even a murder trial has its moments of levity.

After Tim left on the test drive, Sharlene and the Bosmas’ tenant Wayne De Boer were smoking and discussing the two prospective truck buyers. They agreed they were sketchy.

“I felt like it was a weird situation to be in — just how quickly everything had happened. I tried to defuse the situation,” De Boer testified. He did this with black humour, joking about the worst possible, most extreme, unimaginable outcome. “Yeah that was weird,” he said. “It might be the last time we ever see him.” 

Two people haunted by what they said when everyone in the courtroom could likely see themselves saying and doing the exact same thing.

Throughout the trial I will be providing regular updates, including the occasional tweet, as I work on my upcoming book on the Tim Bosma case. You can follow my Twitter feed or sign up for my newsletter.

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