Denvalyn Minott, the man who pleaded guilty to being the contractor in the 2020 murder of Tonia McDonald in Portland, testified in the Home Circuit Court, downtown, Kingston on Tuesday that her husband, Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald wanted him to murder a policeman who his wife was allegedly having a romantic affair with.
Beachy Stout, a popular Portland businessman, and co-accused Oscar Barnes, are being tried for the July 20, 2020 killing of Tonia, whose throat was slashed and who was stabbed multiple times. Her partially burned body was found beside her razed motor vehicle on the Sherwood Forest main road in Portland.
READ: READ: Wife of businessman ‘Beachy Stout’ killed in Portland
Minott, who is now Crown witness in the case against Beachy Stout and Barnes, previously confessed to being the person who was contracted to kill Tonia and was subsequently sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison.
According to Minott, Beachy Stout called him on The phone one Sunday and instructed him to accompany Tonia to her mother’s house in St Mary, but according to the witness, plans eventually changed and so too did the destination.
“Beachy Stout called my phone and said Mrs Mac a go down a her mother and he wanted me to go down there with her. He told me that she lived in St Mary. He said to me that him talk to Mrs Mac already. Mrs Mac called me on the phone afterwards and I met her down on the main road when you get off Ranch Hill.
“She was driving a white Toyota Axio. I sat in the front seat beside her. I didn’t reach St Mary with her. I came out of the car at Buff Bay. I went inside a housing scheme and went to find a house. It was Beachy Stout’s house, but I didn’t find the house. I came back out on the road and went back in the car out on the main road. She then turned the car and went to the Buff Bay Police Station. She spoke to a brown-looking Indian policeman. While she spoke to him, I was sitting in the car. After she finished talking to the policeman, she turned around the car and headed back to Port Antonio. I came out of the car in the town and called Beachy Stout but didn’t get an answer,” Minott told the Court.
Minott added that Beachy Stout returned his call moments later and asked me, ‘If mi see him’. I told him yes and him seh, a di next somebody that him want me to kill.
“I saw and spoke to Beachy Stout after that occasion. I saw him the following day in the supermarket. I went to the supermarket because Mr Beachy Stout said to check him. We spoke about Tonia. He said he wanted her dead because she take his money and give to the police bwoy. I asked him where the policeman lived and he took me in his black BMW and took me to the policeman yard in the Anchovy housing scheme in Port Antonio, Portland. We stopped at the gate and he showed me,” the witness claimed.
He added that while on their way back from the location, Beachy Stout quizzed him to find out when he would be able to murder Tonia, who was the first person that he wanted Minott to kill. The businessman allegedly promised to give Minott $3 million if he murdered Tonia.
READ: Beachy Stout’s wife cried out for mother while being killed, ‘hitman’ claims
“He wanted to know when I was going to finish the work. I told him that as soon as I can get through with everything. I didn’t carry out the job [to kill the policeman],” Minott told the Court, before beginning to explain that he did, however, accomplish the mission to have Tonia killed and said he sub-contracted the work to Oscar Barnes, who stabbed her to death before setting her and her car on fire.
READ: Witness, co-accused tried four times to kill Tonia McDonald
The trial continues Wednesday, when Minott is expected to face a tough cross-examination by the defence attorneys representing both accused.
