Open this photo in gallery
Donna McLeod, Cindy Gladue's mother, watches a rally for her daughter along with a supporters outside the courthouse in Edmonton on Feb. 18, 2021.
JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
A former long-haul trucker from Ontario who is in an Alberta prison for the killing of a woman in an Edmonton hotel a decade ago is appealing his conviction and sentence.
Bradley Barton was sentenced last month to 12 1/2 years for manslaughter in the death of Cindy Gladue, a Metis and Cree woman who bled to death in a bathtub at the Yellowhead Inn in 2011.
‘I feel broken:’ Mother of woman killed in Edmonton hotel tells court of pain
Medical experts testified Gladue had four times the legal limit of alcohol in her system when Barton performed a sexual act that caused a severe wound to her vagina.
It was the second trial for Barton after a jury found him not guilty in 2015 of first-degree murder, a verdict that sparked rallies and calls for justice for Indigenous women across the country.
Defence lawyer Dino Bottos, in the notice of appeal, says the trial judge made several errors and that 12 1/2 years is excessive and unreasonable.
The Crown has already filed an appeal of the sentence, arguing that it is unfit and not proportional to the gravity of the offence.
We have a weekly Western Canada newsletter written by our B.C. and Alberta bureau chiefs, providing a comprehensive package of the news you need to know about the region and its place in the issues facing Canada. Sign up today.