“Dad, here’s Dellen.”From that winter day, maybe seven or eight years ago when his daughter introduced him to her date, standing in the doorway of their home, Clayton Babcock had never spoken to the young man again.Until Monday morning, in a downtown courtroom, with Babcock in the witness stand, recalling a daughter he last saw alive in June, 2012. No one has seen or heard from Laura Babcock in the past five years.The thin fellow asking the questions — lank brown hair, jeans resting on his bony hips, bookish spectacles — is Dellen Millard, on trial for first-degree murder in Laura’s presumed death.Read more: Laura Babcock killed for being odd woman out in love triangle, court hearsHe is representing himself. Thus Millard could cross-examine Clayton Babcock, first witness called in a trial which is expected to last a couple of months. Just as if he were a real lawyer, afforded all the courtesies of the court and the witness compelled to answer, whatever thoughts may have been running through his mind, whatever he was feeling in his gut.“Are you nervous, sir?” Millard, who’s pleaded not guilty, asked, to begin the tense exchange.Yes, he was.Millard: “Do you find this difficult?”Babcock, tersely: “Getting better at it.”Millard: “This can’t be easy for you, being asked questions by me, considering I’m the accused. Does this make it extra difficult?”Babcock: “No.”But how could it not be? So much time has passed since Babcock’s last conversation with Laura, on the phone, June 30, 2012. Parents never stop grieving the loss of a child, though, made all the worse when there’s no body to lay to rest.She was 23 years old.And this man is accused of having done ghastly things to her.The prosecution maintains that Millard and co-accused Mark Smich killed Laura on July 3 or 4, 2012, mere days after she left her beloved Maltese dog, Lacey, and an envelo ...
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