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Woman found dead in Edmonton hotel room was too drunk to consent to sex: lawyers

EDMONTON — A Crown prosecutor is arguing that a man accused of killing a woman in an Edmonton hotel room did not ask for her consent to perform a sexual act that caused her fatal wound.
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Metis and Cree mother Cindy Gladue is shown in a photo presented as a court exhibit in this undated handout photo. The Metis and Cree woman was 36 when she was found dead in a bloody bathtub at an Edmonton hotel in June 2011. Bradley Barton of Mississauga, Ont., is charged with manslaughter. A Crown prosecutor argues that Barton never asked for Gladue’s consent to perform a sexual act that caused her fatal wound. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO — Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta

EDMONTON — A Crown prosecutor is arguing that a man accused of killing a woman in an Edmonton hotel room did not ask for her consent to perform a sexual act that caused her fatal wound.

Bradley Barton, who is 52 and from Mississauga, Ont., is testifying for a fourth day at his manslaughter trial.

He has pleaded not guilty to killing Cindy Gladue, a 36-year-old Metis and Cree mother, at the Yellowhead Inn in June 2011.

Medical experts have testified that Gladue had four times the legal limit of alcohol in her system when she bled to death from a severe and painful wound to her vagina.

Crown lawyer Julie Snowdon said Barton didn’t ask Gladue what she wanted to do the second night he invited her to the hotel and suggested Gladue was too intoxicated to consent to sex.

Barton responded that Gladue never told him to stop, but Snowdon said not saying “stop” did not mean Gladue was consenting.

This is the second trial for Barton in relation to Gladue’s death. His first trial in 2015 sparked rallies and calls for justice for Indigenous women. The case ended up before the Supreme Court of Canada. The high court ordered in 2019 that Barton be retried.