EDMONTON — A judge has sentenced an Ontario trucker driver to 12 1/2 years in prison for killing a woman in his Edmonton hotel room a decade ago.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Stephen Hillier said Bradley Barton will get credit for days he has already spent in custody, so about 11 years remain in his sentence.

A jury found Barton guilty in February of manslaughter in the Death of Cindy Gladue, a 36-year-old Métis and Cree woman who bled to death at the Yellowhead Inn in June 2011.

Hillier said he rejected what he called the self-serving stories Barton told at his trial to avoid responsibility for the aggressive sexual assault that killed Gladue.

Medical experts testified the mother of three had four times the legal limit of alcohol in her system when she was left to bleed to death in a bathtub from a severe wound caused by rough sex.

Gladue’s relatives bowed their heads when the judge said there is no sentence that will bring Gladue back or undo the intergenerational trauma the woman’s death has caused her family.

It was the second trial for Barton.

A jury found him not guilty in 2015 of first-degree murder, which sparked rallies and calls for justice for Indigenous women.

More coming …

The Canadian Press