A man who described himself as Dellen Millard’s best friend found himself in the midst of a heated cross-examination Thursday, breaking down in tears at times as he explained how it slowly dawned on him that Millard may have killed Tim Bosma.

Millard and co-accused Mark Smich have both pleaded not guilty to murder in the case of Bosma, who disappeared from his Hamilton home in May 2013.

Thursday’s lone witness was Matt Hagerman, who began his testimony the previous day, and mentioned at that time that Millard had given him a toolbox and asked him to hang onto it.

Hagerman recalled that Millard seemed “disheveled” enough that he asked his friend if there was something wrong.

He could not recall asking Millard what was inside the box, but agreed with the Crown’s suggestion that Millard said, in effect, that it was better Hagerman not know.

“I’d seen that tool box in the past … so I had in my mind a sure idea of what was in it,” he said, later specifying that he’d seen the box used to hold drugs.

Hagerman said he left the toolbox, which he estimated as weighing four or five pounds, in the fruit cellar in his parents’ basement.

Talk then turned to the day of May 11, 2013 – five days after Bosma’s disappearance, and one day after Millard was arrested by police.

Hagerman said he was contacted on that day by Millard’s roommate, Andrew Michalski.

“Andrew told me Dellen had given him something and knew that Dellen had given me something,” he said.

“We were both in a panic. This thing got thrown in my lap just a couple of days ago and I just wanted to get rid of it.”

Jurors heard that the two eventually agreed to “dump it off somewhere in Oakville.”

While on their way to do that, Hagerman said, they heard a news report explaining that Millard was a suspect in the death of Bosma – prompting them to immediately get rid of both the toolbox and the backpack Michalski had been given.

Hagerman said he believed Michalski was communicating with Smich throughout that process.

Under cross-examination from Millard’s lawyer, Hagerman admitted to being involved in an October 2012 “mission” to steal a Bobcat vehicle and take it to Millard’s hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport.

Hagerman agreed with defence lawyer Ravin Pillay’s assertions that Millard’s plan for stealing the Bobcat was “methodical” and “carefully thought out.”

Smich and Michalski were also involved in that heist, court heard.

Also detailed in court was an escapade in which Hagerman helped Millard steal two lawnmowers.

Hagerman agreed that he agreed to help Millard steal the lawnmowers of his own free will, in part because he found it fun to get away with crimes.

Pillay then asked Hagerman about setting up the May 10 handover of the toolbox.

The testimony then turned to a series of text messages from early that morning, in which Hagerman asked for more information about what Millard was giving him.

When Millard said it was a toolbox, jurors heard, Hagerman replied with “haha full of guns?”, to which Millard didn’t directly respond.

In court, Hagerman said he was joking with his question.

“I never once in my life thought Dellen to be serious with guns,” he said.

Smich lives in Oakville. Jurors have previously heard that a friend of his attempted to sell a gun in a toolbox in the days after Millard’s arrest.

Hagerman was then cross-examined by Smich’s lawyer, Thomas Dungey, who focused more on Hagerman’s interactions with police.

In response to Dungey’s questioning, Hagerman admitted that he consistently lied to police through their investigation.

Asked if he did it to protect his friend Millard, he said it was more to protect himself and his family’s name.

He said that in his first three of four interviews with police, he never mentioned that Millard had given him a toolbox.

By way of explanation, he said that he assumed it was full of drugs – until eventually realizing that he had no way of knowing for sure what was inside.