WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.
Next week will mark the 11th anniversary of Cindy Gladu’s death. Now the man found guilty of causing her death wants Alberta’s highest court to overturn his sentence and order a new trial.
A jury found Bradley Barton guilty of manslaughter in February 2021. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
This was the second trial for the former long-distance truck driver from Ontario.
He was acquitted of both first-degree murder and manslaughter in 2015.
The acquittal sparked protests across the country, calls for a change in the judiciary and raised questions about how it treats indigenous women.
In 2017, the Alberta Court of Appeals overturned the decision and a new murder case was ordered.
In 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada partially overturned this decision, ordering a new trial only on the charge of manslaughter.
The Crown has already filed an appeal against Barton’s sentence, arguing that it is inappropriate and does not reflect the gravity of the crime.
Gladue was 36-year-old Metis and Cree, a mother of three.
Cindy Hunger, cook in the kitchen. Her family says that Gladu has always prepared breakfast for her mother Donna McLeod. (Submitted by Donna McLeod)
She agreed to have sex for money transactions with Barton on two nights in June 2011. On the second night, she was heavily intoxicated by the time she had sex with Barton in his hotel room.
Her body was found in a bathtub at the Yellowhead Inn. Hunger died of a fatal internal trauma that the Crown claimed was caused by rough sex.
Barton called 911 to report the death.
His lawyers claim that what happened further violated Barton’s rights under the charter.
Allegedly illegal detention
Police asked Barton to come with them to downtown to testify.
A fact filed by appeals attorney Peter Sankoff claims that police never told Barton he was a potential suspect, but they called on him to explain his involvement in Gladue’s death. Barton was detained for six and a half hours.
During the trial, Queen’s Judge Stephen Hillier found that the first three hours of detention could be justified, but he would not acknowledge any of Barton’s statements after that time.
There is virtually no precedent for the length of detention that has taken place here. – Lawyer Peter Sankoff
“For detention to be lawful, it must be short and not oblige detainees to answer police questions,” Sankoff said. “There is virtually no precedent for the length of detention that has taken place here.”
He cites other cases that show that the 11-minute pre-trial detention is too long, while the permissible detentions range from a few minutes to less than an hour.
“Although the police may have requested a recorded statement, the applicant has no legal obligation to provide it and cannot be detained for that purpose,” the court document said.
Sankoff also claims that the police rejected his question whether he should seek legal advice.
“The applicant’s statements were inherently unreliable, as the police had received them in violation of his right to a lawyer,” the court document said.
The computer evidence had to be ruled out: a lawyer
Barton’s lawyer claims that his client’s constitutional rights were also violated when police seized Barton’s bag. Inside was his laptop, which revealed evidence of searches on pornographic websites that had been presented to the jury.
Police said they seized the bag to preserve the evidence in order to obtain a search warrant. During the trial, the judge found that the seizure did not violate Barton’s charter rights.
Sankoff disagrees, saying police had no reasonable grounds to seize and detain the bag. For this reason, he believes that the evidence on the website should have been excluded during the trial.
“All the evidence was obtained in a way that violates the applicant’s rights,” Sankoff said.
Sankoff told CBC News that he expects the Crown to send a response by the end of the summer.
Barton remains in custody.
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