Witness claims fear of ‘Beachy’ caused him to falsify testimony
Published:Thursday | October 5, 2023 | 12:09 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
A FORMER employee of Portland businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald’s claimed that he lied to the police in his first statement because he did not want to meet a fate similar to that some of his co-workers, who had crossed his boss, had suffered.
“I lied in the first statement based on witnessing things he had done to other workers,” the witness said during re-examination by the prosecutor when asked why he had lied to the police during the ongoing trial into the death of Tonia McDonald, the former wife of Everton.
The witness, who previously testified that he and McDonald shared a father-son relationship and that he was his right-hand man, however, did not provide further details on what had been done to his co-workers.
Yesterday, while undergoing cross-examination from McDonald’s lawyer, Christopher Townsend, the witness admitted that he had lied in his first statement to the police.
He, however, claimed that the second statement contained the truth.
McDonald and his co-accused, Oscar Barnes, are currently on trial in the Home Circuit Court for the murder of the 32-year-old businesswoman.
Tonia was found in her car with her throat slashed, and the car had been set ablaze along a deserted road in Sherwood Forest in Portland on July 20, 2020.
The witness, who claimed he initially did not like Tonia but had eventually bonded with her after a while, was arrested and charged with accessory to murder after her death.
However, the court heard that he struck a plea deal with the prosecution and gave them a second statement.
The witness also rejected a suggestion that he never showed the police where he had destroyed several phones and had thrown away a gun that Beachy had given him.
The witness also insisted that he was telling the truth about being shown a naked picture of Tonia by her husband.
“There was no conversation between you and Mr Mack about him burning up his wife,” Townsend said to the witness, who did not agree.
“Neither did Mr Mack tell you that he wanted to kill anybody,” the lawyer continued.
“No, sir. He told me about several people that he wanted to kill,” the witness replied.
But before completing his cross-examination, the witness rejected a suggestion that all that he said in his evidence implicating Beachy was a lie.
Meanwhile, further, during yesterday’s proceeding, the court heard that Tonia suffered 10 knife wounds, including a cutthroat wound. The knife wounds were mainly to her upper body. She also had burns to her chest and a punctured trachea.
This after her post-mortem report, which was agreed by the defence and the prosecution was read into evidence.
Based on the report, her cause of death was as a result of an incised wound to her neck and multiple stab wounds.
A contract killer, who is already serving 19 years and 10 months’ time for the role he played in Tonia’s murder, is expected to start giving evidence today when the trial is resumed.
Denvalyn ‘Bubbla’ Minott had reportedly entered into an arrangement with McDonald to kill his wife for three million dollars but subcontracted another person to carry out the killing.
Attorneys-at-law John Jacobs, Earl Hamilton, and Courtney Rowe are also representing McDonald while Ernest Davies is representing Barnes.