Yahoo Finance Accused killer told police he found dead woman in bathtub but did nothing wrong, court hears
An accused killer told police he found a naked woman in his hotel room bathtub covered in blood but had done nothing wrong.
Bradley Barton is charged with manslaughter in the June 2011 death of Cindy Gladue. The Ontario moving company truck driver was in Edmonton for work.
On Friday, the jury was told Barton checked out of his room at the Yellowhead Inn nearly a decade ago but then returned to the front desk a short while later to request a card key, saying he had left some papers in the room.
After he got back inside room 139, Barton dialed 911. When the operator asked about the nature of his emergency, Barton replied, "It's a long story. I woke up and there was a girl in my bathroom covered in blood."
He went on to explain that after they were all partying, she came back to have a shower.
"I fell asleep on the bed and I woke up this morning, she's lying in the tub with blood all over the place."
Barton repeated the story when he was transferred to a police dispatcher, adding that he'd been watching TV while she was in the bathroom, then passed out and fell asleep.
"I poked her in the tummy," Barton said. "She's not moving. I don't want to touch her."
Barton insisted he was not running away from the situation when he was asked to remain on the line until police arrived.
"I didn't do anything wrong," he said. "I'm just shaking like crazy right now."
But he demurred when the dispatcher wanted his home address in Mississauga, Ontario.
"I'm married. I have kids," Barton said. "I don't want my wife or nothing to find out."
The call ended when police arrived at his hotel room.
'What happens on the road stays on the road'
The night before Gladue was found deceased, Barton was drinking in the hotel bar with fellow truck driver Kevin Atkins.
Atkins said he went outside to smoke and when he returned a woman was at the table with Barton.
Atkins said Barton introduced her as a woman he used as a packer for the moving company.
"She was more than a packer," Atkins told the jury as he testified remotely from Ontario.
Barton's lawyer asked if he saw any signs of affection between Barton and Gladue during the hour and a half they sat and drinked together at Lucky's Bar.
"Yes," Atkins replied. "She had her leg on his lap and he was rubbing her leg and foot."
When it was almost closing time, the trio left the bar and headed towards their first-floor hotel rooms.
Barton is spotted on surveillance video saying something to Atkins.
"He asked me if I would like a piece," Atkins testified. "Have sex with the lady," he clarified.
"I said no. I just wanted to go eat my food and go to bed."
Before Barton continued down the hall with Gladue, Atkins said Barton told him, "Remember, what happens on the road stays on the road."
Surveillance video viewed by the jury also showed Barton and Gladue leaving his hotel room the night before holding hands.
A different version from Barton
After police were called in to investigate Gladue's death, they contacted Atkins about what they called a suspicious death.
"It was about this girl that was staying with Brad Barton the past couple of days," Atkins recalled.
Atkins asked Barton what happened when the two men met later in the day.
"He said they went back to their room," Atkins testified. "They were talking. They started to fool around. She was bleeding or starting to bleed. He passed out or fell asleep."
Atkins said that was the last time he talked to Barton. He told the jury they are no longer friends.
The trial continues next week. and is scheduled to last seven weeks.
