Police interview video of accused killer Bradley Barton reveals statements contradicted by evidence

In an initial interview with a homicide detective, accused killer Bradley Barton made numerous statements about the events surrounding the death of Cindy Gladue that were later contradicted by evidence entered in court.

But in an intense cross examination Friday, defence lawyer Dino Bottos attempted to establish Edmonton police Det. Karen Ockerman had not properly informed Barton about the seriousness of the charges he could face and downplayed his need for a lawyer.

Barton is charged with manslaughter in the June 2011 death of Gladue. The Ontario moving company truck driver was in Edmonton for work. He was originally tried in 2015 and found not guilty by a jury. In 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a retrial on a charge of manslaughter.

During Friday's proceedings in Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench, the jury viewed grainy, black-and-white video of Barton's interview with Ockerman on the morning of June 22, 2011, hours after Gladue's naked, bloody body was discovered in Barton's hotel room bathtub.

Ockerman cautioned Barton that anything he said could be used in court. She asked several times if he wanted to call a lawyer. But Barton repeatedly said he had done nothing wrong and readily answered questions from the detective. 

"I never touched that girl," Barton told Ockerman. He said he was "scared shitless" when he discovered Gladue's body.

Barton told Ockerman he was having drinks with fellow truck driver Kevin Atkins in the bar of the Yellowhead Inn. During a smoke break outside, he said Gladue — who he said he had seen before and talked to a few times — approached and asked for a smoke. They ended up drinking together. 

He told the detective he eventually went back to his room. Later, Gladue knocked on the door and asked if he wanted "some company," Barton said. He told Ockerman he refused but agreed to Gladue's request to use his shower.

He said Gladue propositioned him once more but he again refused. He said he passed out while she was taking a shower.

"I fell asleep and I woke up this morning and her clothes were there, and what is going on here?" he said.

"I walk into the bathroom, right? And she is laying in the tub and it's just — oh my, oh my God," Barton said. "I phoned 911 and I said, 'Please help me.'"

• Accused killer told police he found dead woman in bathtub but did nothing wrong, court hears

Security video previously played in court, however, showed Barton, Atkins, and Gladue walking down the hotel hallway the night before Gladue was found dead. 

Atkins testified last week that Barton "asked me if I would like a piece," meaning whether he would like to "have sex with the lady," but said he declined.

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.

'I knew I had to phone the police'

In his interview with the homicide detective, Barton said, "I knew I had to phone the police.

"I knew that," he said. "I just couldn't leave this young lady laying in this bathtub, right?"

He told Ockerman he threw his bag of clothes in a van and told his colleagues he had "some issues I gotta deal with here."

WATCH | Barton tells Ockerman he knew he had to phone the police

'I was in panic mode'

4 years ago

Duration 0:16

Excerpt of Bradley Barton's interview with a homicide detective on the morning of June 22, 2011.

The detective asked Barton if his colleagues had asked him to explain. He said no, and that he then called 911.

But a former casual employee of Barton's testified Wednesday that he had to urge Barton to call the police, after Barton told him he had awakened to find a bleeding, unresponsive woman in his bathtub.

"I told him right away, I said, 'You have got to phone the cops," John Sullivan testified. 

• Witness testifies he urged Bradley Barton to call police about bleeding woman in bathtub

An agreed statement of facts entered into court Friday also described how a woman in the hotel room next to Barton's "heard a big thud" on a wall around 2 a.m.

Roxanne Skiba said it sounded like a person falling against the wall separating the two suites. She awoke again around 5:30 a.m. to hear a loud slam of what sounded like an exterior door. Skiba said she did not hear any screaming, angry words or anything that caused her concern.

Cross-examination of homicide detective

In his cross-examination, Bottos repeatedly took Ockerman through the early minutes of her interview with Barton, several times replaying a portion of the audio from the video in which Ockerman attempts to allay Barton's fear.

Bottos referenced an exchange in which Barton asks, "Do I need a la..." but trails off and starts a new sentence.

"'Lawyer,' right?" Bottos asked, referring to what Barton meant to say. 

"Could be. I don't want to put words in his mouth for him," Ockerman responded.

Bottos repeatedly sought to establish that the detective had to have known Barton was a prime suspect, but she did not tell him that. 

After reading several exchanges, Bottos asked the detective if she told Barton she considered him to be a suspect. Ockerman said at that point she didn't know what role Barton had played in Gladue's death.

"But he calls from a hotel room with a deceased's body, blood all over the place, and [it is] suspicious, right?" Bottos asked, adding, "it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that he was probably suspect No. 1, right?"

Ockerman responded that any number of things could have happened.

"We had very little information at that time and I didn't know his involvement at all," she said, adding later that investigators didn't know then if it was a homicide.

Barton was arrested in Calgary two days after the interview. 

The trial continues Monday.