Tim Bosma trial: Financial health of Dellen Millard's company disputed

Lawyers picked apart the financial health of Dellen Millard's company on Thursday, as the trial of two men accused of killing Tim Bosma continued in Ontario Superior Court in Hamilton.

MillardAir bookkeeper Lisa Williams returned to the witness boxand told the jury thatthe company was generating no income when Millard took over from his father in 2012.

Millard, 30, of Toronto, and his co-accused Mark Smich, 28, of Oakville, are accused of killing Bosma, 32. Both accused have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

• 'Don't tell them anything babe': Jury hears about Mark Smich arrest
• Remains found in incinerator could not be ID'd
• Who was Tim Bosma? His friends remember

Prosecutors believe that Bosma's body was burned in a livestock incinerator after he was shot and killed inside a Dodge pickup truck he had been trying to sell online.

Bosma, from the suburbanAncaster area of Hamilton,was last seen on May 6, 2013, and was missing for more than a week before remains were found on May 14 on an Ayr, Ont., farm owned by Millard. Those remains could not be identified.

Whilequestioning Williams, assistant Crown Brett Moodie read from a statement Williams gave police after Millard was arrested in 2013.

"If you're going by the money that's in the bank account, I'd say things are getting tight. Very tight," her statement read. On Wednesday, Williams told the court about a loan the company took out in October 2012 to keep the business going. She said it was for approximately $3.7 million.

Williams also told the court that she visited Millard in jail "maybe five or six times." Millard's mother, Madeleine Burns, is the only personstill on the company's payroll, Williams testified, and is being paid $5,000 a month.

The projected amount of money Millard would have made in 2013 was $125,000, she said.

In cross-examination, Millard's lawyer Nadir Sachak attacked Williams's credentialsand questioned any ability she would have to give an accurate picture of Millard's financial situation.

Williams does not have formal training, she agreed. She is not a chartered accountantand hasn't studied business management or bookkeeping.

"You are a self-taught woman?" Sachak asked. "Yes," she responded.

"We know now you don't have any expertise or real knowledge to opine on the financial affairs of a corporation," Sachak said.

Williams agreed that the money coming in and out of a business isn't the sole indicator of its financial well-being.

Sachak said that Williams had no knowledge of Millard's personal finances.

"You were not Dellen Millard's personal bookkeeper." Sachak said.

"No, I was not," she responded.

CBC reporter Adam Carteris in the courtroom each day reporting live on the trial. You can view a recap of his livebloghere:

On mobile and can't see the live blog? View it here.

adam.carter@cbc.ca