By Canadian Press

Accused in woman’s death ‘controlled every aspect’ of home they shared: Crown

May 30, 2019 | 2:07 AM

WINNIPEG — A Crown prosecutor argued Tuesday that a man accused of killing a woman whose body was found in a barrel in their backyard used physical and psychological abuse to manipulate multiple women who lived in the home.

“Mr. Cleveland controlled every aspect of that home that he called his kingdom,” Breta Passler said during closing arguments in the jury trial of Perez Cleveland.

Cleveland, 46, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 2016 death of 42-year-old Jennifer Barrett.

Court has heard that Cleveland shared a house in Winnipeg with his adult daughter and five women, who were described by one of them as “sister wives.”

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“Mr. Cleveland had a great deal of power over the women in that house and he abused that power,” Passler said.

The defence argued the household was held together by shared drug use and said there’s no evidence to prove Cleveland caused Barrett’s death.

The women all had unique vulnerabilities, said Passler, who added that each had eerily similar stories about how Cleveland was initially charming before he turned abusive and controlling.

Holley Sullivan, 30, told jurors earlier in the trial that she started dating Cleveland in 2010, when she was 21 and he was 36. She detailed years of physical violence including beatings with extension cords and hammers, the use of crossbows and a staging of a so-called kill room from the television show “Dexter.”

Sullivan said Cleveland’s favourite phrase was: “If you cannot listen, then you must feel.”

Jessica Reid, 36, said she met Cleveland in 2015 when she was buying methamphetamine, but soon after their relationship turned romantic. She too was physically abused, she told court.

Barrett was kept in the home’s basement in the summer of 2016, the women testified, because Cleveland claimed she had been cheating on him. The Crown added that Barrett began to fear for her life even though she had described herself as his submissive in a relationship document police uncovered.

One of the women testified that after Barrett tried to escape, she was covered in bruises and could not lift her arms above her head.

Reid told court she saw Barrett stumble out of the basement’s laundry room and fall to the floor. Cleveland used a Taser on Barrett’s leg to try to get her moving, Reid said. The woman’s body jolted, but no other movement followed.

The two women said Cleveland ordered them to get rid of the body.

Sullivan is serving time after pleading guilty for her role in hiding Barrett’s body in the barrel. Reid also faces charges, but her case has not yet gone to trial.

Passler told the jury the death was not an accident.

“He simply did not care whether she died or not while he assaulted her,” she said of Cleveland.

Defence lawyer Steve Brennan closed his case by telling the jury that Reid was jealous of Barrett’s relationship with Cleveland and had acted violently toward Barrett. 

Everyone in the house was doing a lot of methamphetamine, Brennan added.

He said his client may not be a nice person, but questioned why there were no police or hospital records reflecting the abuse the women described.

Court also heard that because of the body’s decomposition, there was no way to know what caused Barrett’s death.

Cleveland may have been controlling or even abusive, Brennan argued, but there’s no evidence to show he killed Barrett. The women had the ability to leave the house, the lawyer added, but they were “banded together by their drug addictions.”

“There are no angels in this case.”

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press