Norman Gratton pleads guilty to manslaughter

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Times & Transcript Staff

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A Miramichi-area man pleaded guilty in Moncton court yesterday to killing an elderly Blackville man.

Norman Robert Gratton, 46, appeared in Moncton's Court of Queen's Bench yesterday, represented by defence lawyer David Lutz. Gratton was charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 76-year-old Durward Jardine. His body was found in a room at the Colonial Inn on Highfield Street on Aug. 18.

Gratton pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, but guilty to the included offence of manslaughter, which Crown prosecutor Michel O. LeBlanc accepted. Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The Crown will request victim impact statements and LeBlanc pointed out to the court Jardine had 11 children so there would be many requests made. Justice George Rideout scheduled sentencing for Dec. 16.

Jardine's body was found by staff at the hotel around 12:45 p.m. on Aug. 18 and police were called. Police gathered evidence and spoke to witnesses and learned the identities of suspects in the killing were a 46-year-old man and 31-year-old woman from Miramichi, who fled the scene in Jardine's truck.

The pair were spotted at a residence in the Eskasoni First Nation in Cape Breton, where the woman is originally from. They were arrested 30 hours after Jardine's body was discovered and the truck was later found abandoned in the Antigonish area.

Gratton and Becky Ophelia Nicholas were charged with first-degree murder, but that was later reduced to second-degree murder for Gratton and accessory to murder after the fact for helping Gratton escape for Nicholas.

Nicholas has elected to be tried by judge and jury and is scheduled to return to court this afternoon.