Cocky.

Dellen Millard is cocky and the jury knows it.

On the third day of his first-degree murder trial, Millard stole the show when he smiled and raised his hand in greeting to a homicide detective on the witness stand. Det. Sgt. Paul Hamilton, who met Millard at his Waterloo Region aviation hangar in the days leading up to his arrest in connection to Tim Bosma's murder, was asked if he could identify Millard in the courtroom.

"Yes, he's sitting at that table in the white shirt," Hamilton said.

Which prompted Millard to smile and hold his hand up high in return.

A man on trial for first-degree murder just smiled and waved? At a homicide detective on the witness stand? In front of the jury?

The bizarre moment was fleeting, but it made an impression. Jurors raised their eyebrows and looked at one another, members of the media whispered among themselves, Tim's family looked horrified.

Millard, 30, and his one-time pal Mark Smich, 28, are accused of abducting and shooting Tim on May 6, 2013 during a test drive of the pickup truck he was selling. The Crown alleges they then cremated Tim, a 32-year-old Ancaster family man, in The Eliminator, a piece of farm equipment designed to incinerate livestock.

While the jurors have heard testimony from Tim's widow and a tenant describing the demeanour of the friendly, tall guy who got behind the wheel of Tim's truck for that test drive, they have been able to observe Millard's demeanour with their own eyes.

Each day Smich and Millard are in the courtroom before the jury arrives and, as is the custom, they rise for the jurors' entrance. Millard usually does a deep bow in the jury's direction. Smich does not.

They sit together — but as far apart as possible — at a table behind their teams of lawyers. Smich, shorter and with darker hair, always sits on the left. His expression is always the same — blank. He turns to see witnesses enter the courtroom and faces witnesses on the stand.

Millard is far more animated. He nods and smiles at people in the body of the court, particularly the media. He fidgets and swivels in his chair. He has paper and a pen provided to him so he can, presumably, take notes. He does a lot of writing.

And while Smich never looks his way, Millard often looks his co-accused up and down, sometimes smiling at him. During the Crown's opening address when the court heard that Smich had told his girlfriend Tim was "gone, gone, gone," Millard looked over at him and ever so slightly shook his head.

When each of this trial's jurors was sworn in they were asked to look the accused in the eye. Courtrooms are designed so a jury can see the accused at all times.

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Jurors have the means and ability to make their own observations of the people they sit in judgment of. This jury will be in the courtroom with Millard and Smich for four months.

That gives them many hours to watch the men they will judge.