New court documents state that a man strangled a woman before allegedly beating her to death in a hotel room in Washington, D.C., with the ceramic lid from a toilet.
The Metropolitan Police Department stated that it responded at approximately 11:20 a.m. Friday to report of an unconscious person located in the 1600 block of New York Avenue NE. Inside the hotel room, they found the adult female with apparent trauma to the body who had succumbed to her injuries, the news release says. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
The Metropolitan Police Department announced that 59-year-old William Barrett was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Maddox’s homicide after an employee at the Ivy City Hotel found her body on Friday.
Detectives determined that on Thursday, around 7:20 p.m., Barrett and Maddox checked into the hotel in question. In the statement, Barrett said he had been involved in a romantic relationship with Maddox for over a year.
They go into room 123 of the hotel, and the two are not seen again on surveillance film until 10:20 pm that night when cops say Maddox can be seen walking out of the room naked. For a couple of minutes, it appeared she was unable to get back into the room. She then re-entered and wasn’t seen again until just after 1 in the morning.
Cops say Maddox left the room, wearing only underwear, at 1:15 a.m. A short while later, Barrett walked out of the hotel room completely naked to look for her. Five minutes after that, they go back to the room. Within an hour, cops say they recorded what sounded like a woman screaming “help” and “get off me.”
Nobody is seen or heard leaving or coming into the room after that until Barrett left just after 9 a.m.
A statement said the hotel worker entered the room at about 11 a.m. and was caught on camera hurriedly closing the door and running down the hallway.
After studying the security video and gathering evidence from the room, including the toilet tank cover that had been shattered into three pieces, the police made the decision to arrest Barrett. During the time of his arrest, Barrett was found to have blood on his head and face, as well as on his cell phone, two pairs of gloves, his boxers, and his belt, according to the detectives.
Barrett is said to have reported to the authorities that he and Maddox had a heated debate that escalated into a violent altercation after they had checked into the hotel. According to him, Maddox started punching him and “was running her mouth,” which prompted him to choke her with his belt until she passed out without the ability to breathe.
According to the allegations, he stated that he believed he had murdered Maddox by choking her, but she suddenly abruptly regained up and started screaming for assistance. After that, Barrett punched her, grabbed the lid of the toilet tank, and slammed her with it many times, which ultimately resulted in the lid breaking into pieces.
According to the records filed in the court, Maddox sustained three different types of injuries: blunt force trauma to her forehead, abnormalities to her head, and many lacerations. After the assault, Barrett stated that he fell asleep, and when he awoke, Maddox was not moving, and her body was cold since she had been sleeping.
