Man pleads not guilty to murdering woman found decomposing in barrel in 2016

The man accused of murdering a woman and leaving her for months to decay in a barrel is pleading not guilty, but his lawyers didn't get their way when a judge ruled a piece of DNA evidence the Crown argues is "critical" to the case should go before a jury rather than be excluded at trial.

Perez Adaryll Cleveland, 43, appeared in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 2016 death of Jennifer Barrett.

Barrett, 42, was found decomposing in a barrel in the backyard of a Waverley Heights home on Dec. 1, 2016. Police said her body was found in chemicals meant to aid in decomposition and estimate she was killed on or around Aug. 25, 2016.

A warrant was issued in September of that year and Cleveland was arrested Dec. 13, 2016. He was charged with 55 offences, including assault with a weapon, uttering threats and parole violations.

Cleveland's defence lawyers, Jeremy Kostiuk and Saheel Zaman, filed a motion to block DNA evidence linking Barrett to blood stains in the basement of the home where witnesses say she was beaten before her body was hidden.

Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice Glenn Joyal denied the motion and ordered the evidence be considered by a jury at Cleveland's upcoming trial, which is expected to take place next year.

Barrett and Cleveland met and dated in Sudbury, Ont., but broke up in the 1990s, her brother Jason Barrett told CBC News in March.

In 1999, Sudbury police issued an arrest warrant for Cleveland for a series of offences, including assault and threatening death.

Jason said Cleveland and his sister, a nurse and mother, connected again and she moved from Sudbury in 2012,  eventually landing in Winnipeg.

Police believe Cleveland assaulted Barrett over the course of several days and then killed her more than three months before her body was found.

Blood of 'marginal' significance: defence

Using DNA samples from Barrett's parents, Crown attorneys Christian Vanderhooft and Breta Passler said police were able to identify her body and confirm the presence of her blood in the basement.

Court heard the Crown intends to call at least two witnesses during trial who previously told police Cleveland beat Barrett in the basement and that's where the blood came from.

Kostiuk doesn't accept a beating took place in the basement. The defence lawyer said details from witnesses about what allegedly happened differ. 

I'm not sure what would qualify as a more meaningful and supportive bit of corroborative information … but for perhaps a video camera recording the darn incident.- Justice Glenn Joyal

Apart from what witnesses told police, Kostiuk argued there was no concrete proof that Cleveland assaulted Barrett, and that jury members could wrongly make a leap and infer the forensic evidence does indeed tie Cleveland to the bloody basement scene.

"I'm not saying that it isn't relevant," Kostiuk said. 

"The extent to which the blood stain helps them, it's not zero, but it's far from the end all and be all. And the risk is the aura of scientific respectability, that the jury might wrongly use that incorrectly on an intellectual level to prefer a version of events that the Crown wants to advance rather than the accused."

For those reasons Kostiuk said the blood stains were of "marginal" significance and asked Justice Joyal to not allow the evidence to be considered by a jury.

Joyal rejected the defence request.

"When you say that this is a marginal bit of substantiation or corroboration, I'm not sure what would qualify as a more meaningful and supportive bit of corroborative information, but for the timing and but for perhaps a video camera recording the darn incident," Joyal responded to Kostiuk.

'Pretty direct evidence'

Justice Joyal went on to say the Crown's case against Cleveland will be based on witness testimony and "significantly circumstantial" evidence, but Vanderhooft disagreed with that characterization.

"When two witnesses say, 'Perez Cleveland killed this person in the basement, asked us to clean up the body, asked us to assist in resuscitating her, took the body to the garage and the outside of the house and left it there, and we were told what to do, to clean it up,' I'd say that's pretty direct evidence," Vanderhooft said. 

Jessica Elizabeth Reid, who was 34 at the time of Barrett's death, and Holley Alyssa Sullivan, then 28, lived in the home where Barrett was found.

They were charged with accessory to murder after the fact in connection with her death. Police believe Reid and Sullivan were involved in some way.

In 2016, about two months after police believe Barrett was killed, Reid took out a restraining order on Cleveland, her former partner.

The group moved out of the home in November of that year.

In addition to tying Cleveland to the murder, Vanderhooft said the blood in the basement also establishes that Barrett, Cleveland and the witnesses were all living in the home together, and that belongings of Barrett's found in the basement weren't there by accident in the days leading up to her disappearance and death.

"Obviously Ms. Barrett didn't climb into a barrel and end up in the backyard of this residence," Vanderhooft said.

"[Cleveland] left shortly after she went missing. Now, that circumstance — the fact he left the residence and went to move and live somewhere else and her blood was found there — is very important."

Cleveland's trial is expected to take place in May and June of 2019.