The judge at the Laura Babcock murder trial has begun instructing the jury, the last step before they deliberate on a verdict. Mark Smich and Dellen Millard have pleaded not guilty to first degree murder in the 2012 disappearance of the 23-year-old Toronto woman.

Justice Code told the jury this morning that this case is based on circumstantial evidence but that doesn’t mean the case is weak, it just means the jury has to decide on how much weight to give each piece of evidence, and they have to infer what the evidence means in terms of Laura Babcock’s alleged murder.

The jury has two big questions. Is Laura Babcock dead and did Dellen Millard and Mark Smich kill her?

There is evidence that Dellen Millard was with Laura Babcock on July 3rd, 2012 and that she stopped using her bank, health care, social media and phone on July 4th. There is evidence Millard and Smich tried to get an incinerator and bought a gun shortly before Laura Babcock’s disappearance and evidence they burned something in the incinerator on July 23rd.

After the fact of the alleged murder, there are statements by the accused to consider; like Mark Smich’s rap song and testimony from his friends that he bragged the words were about a real murder. There are letters Dellen Millard wrote to his girlfriend before he was arrested for Laura Babcock’s murder, in which he appears to be creating a false alibi for her death.

The judge told the jury to look at all the evidence together to decide what it means; photos, text messages, testimony from witnesses. Friday he’ll get into other areas, like the difference between murder and manslaughter and a more fulsome summation of the evidence. He won’t finish his charge until Monday or Tuesday; that’s when the jury will retire to consider their verdict.