TORONTO — Ontario's highest court has dismissed multiple murderer Dellen Millard's appeal of his conviction for killing his father.
But the court applied a recent Supreme Court decision that entitles him to seek parole after 25 years, not 75.
The Ontario Court of Appeal affirmed Millard's life sentence for the first-degree murder of Wayne Millard, but says the order to stack his parole ineligibility period on top of his previous two murder sentences could not stand.
Millard was sentenced for his father's murder with no chance of parole for 75 years after the trial judge used a Criminal Code provision to stack the 25-year period of parole ineligibility with his previous sentences for the murders of Tim Bosma and Laura Babcock.
The Supreme Court ruled last year those types of consecutive periods of parole ineligibility are unconstitutional, entitling Millard to apply for parole after 25 years.
Millard asked the court Friday to clarify when exactly he would then be entitled to apply for parole, but the three-judge panel declined to comment since it is still deciding his and his co-convicted Mark Smich's appeals in the Bosma and Babcock murders.
The court has reserved its decision in those other appeals, which it heard earlier this week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2023.
The Canadian Press
