Crown wraps up case in Cleveland murder trial

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This article was published 22/05/2019 (1800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Crown prosecutors closed their case against accused killer Perez Adaryll Cleveland on Thursday, after six days of graphic testimony from four women, who spoke about years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse endured at Cleveland’s hands.

It’s that violent abuse, the prosecution is expected to argue for the jury, that led to the death of 42-year-old Jennifer Barrett in August 2016.

The former nurse was one of six women (including the accused’s adult daughter) living with Cleveland in a rented Winnipeg home that summer. Her body was found four months later inside a barrel, in the fetal position, next to the two-storey, six-bedroom home at 38 Forest Lake Dr.

Cleveland, 46, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His defence lawyer, Steven Brennan, may decide to call the accused to testify Monday, but Cleveland is presumed innocent under the law and his defence team has no obligation to prove he is not responsible for Barrett’s death.

The prosecution believes Cleveland beat Barrett to death after he accused her of cheating on him. By the time her body was discovered, it was too late to determine how she died.

Dr. Raymond Rivera, the pathologist who performed a three-day autopsy on Barrett’s remains, testified he has conducted more than 2,000 autopsies in his career, but “this was the first one I’ve ever done” in which the human remains were encased in a chemical substance (drain cleaner containing lye) meant to eat away at the bones.

“This is not a normal autopsy,” he said.

Barrett’s body had several broken bones, according to a forensic anthropologist who examined it in October 2017.

Her ribs, right lower leg and right wrist showed fractures, Dr. Emily Holland testified. She told the jury the broken ribs happened around the time of Barrett’s death, but said it’s possible she was already dead.

The jury of seven men and five women heard Thursday from two women — Renee Rose and Kelsie Jones — who were part of Cleveland’s household at the time.

Cleveland “was open” and was having relationships with each of the women, Jones told the jury.

All of the women — including Jessica Reid and Holley Sullivan, who previously testified — said Cleveland’s initial charm gave way to controlling behaviour, paranoia, and extreme violence. Each said Cleveland tortured them and ran a household that kept them under surveillance and forbid them from leaving or having contact with the outside world — except to run errands for him or deliver drugs for his alleged methamphetamine-dealing business.

During his cross-examination of Rose, Brennan suggested she had a financial motivation for speaking to police about Cleveland, which she denied. He asked whether she was trying to get money from Manitoba’s victims compensation fund.

Rose said she has thought about pursuing a civil claim against Cleveland for the abuse he put her through since they met a decade ago.

“He destroyed my life… so yeah, I thought about it,” Rose said, adding that’s not why she decided to speak to the police. She described Barrett as her best friend, and said the last time she saw her alive, Cleveland was heating up a machete with a blowtorch in the basement while Barrett tried to tell Rose she’d been raped.

“My best friend’s dead, and he killed her. That’s what this is about,” Rose said.

Jones testified she heard screams coming from the basement of their shared home one night and never saw Barrett again. Cleveland didn’t say anything about Barrett when he was staying with Jones in various Winnipeg hotels afterward, she testified.

Sullivan is serving a prison sentence for accessory to murder after she admitted she put Barrett’s body in the metal barrel and poured in the drain cleaner solution in an attempt to speed up decomposition. She testified she did so under orders from Cleveland.

Reid is also charged with accessory after the fact. Her trial is set to begin in January.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay