Wife unknowingly delivered cash to hitman for her murder

The convicted fisherman contracted by Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald to murder his wife disclosed that he and another man he had hired to carry out the hit made two unsuccessful attempts to kill the woman.

McDonald, 68, and his co-accused, Oscar Barnes, are on trial in the Home Circuit Court for the 32-year-old businesswoman’s July 2020 murder.

The partially burned body of Tonia McDonald was found with the throat slashed in her car, which had been set ablaze along a deserted road in Sherwood Forest in Portland on July 20, 2020.

The 58-year-old prisoner, Denvalyn ‘Bubbla’ Minott, who is currently serving 19 years and 10 months for his role in the murder plot, testified on Thursday that he reluctantly agreed to kill Tonia after McDonald offered him $3 million.

But he told the court that he later made arrangements with Barnes, who he had met on a fishing beach in 2020, to carry out the killing.

Minott further testified that a month before the murder, McDonald outlined exactly how he wanted his wife killed.

“Him say him nuh want she fi get nuh gunshot. Him want mi stab har up, cut off har neck,” he told the court. “All me affi do a jus go up a di house wid har and wait til she come out a di car. Mi kill har in di yard.”

The witness said McDonald also requested not to be informed of the date when the murder would happen.

SAVED BY THE HELPER

He said that the first attempt on Tovia’s life at her home one night was aborted due to her helper’s presence.

The witness said that he and Barnes had been waiting outside for two hours, but when Tonia arrived home, she ran to the grille and knocked, and the helper came out to let her inside, so they left.

Minott earlier testified that McDonald had shown him around the yard and an exit to an open field to take after committing the murder.

In the second attempt, the witness said he lured Tonia to Portland under the guise that she was going to buy a gun, which she had asked him to source for her.

According to the witness, McDonald told him after introducing Tonia to him that she wanted a gun to kill the man who was responsible for her father’s death.

But Minott claimed that McDonald told him that he was the one who had murdered her father.

Turning back to the trip, he said that before going to Portland, he went to St Mary with Barnes, who he had asked to procure the gun, and while there, he called Tonia and told her that he had got the gun and she was to pick it up.

MANCHIONEAL PLAN

The plan was for them to travel to Machioneal, but Barnes later told them to go to Boston instead.

When they arrived, he said that Barnes left his car, and when he went in search of him, Barnes told him that the gun was in a fishing boat but that he could not retrieve it as he was being watched by a woman nearby.

The witness said that during that trip, Tonia had given him $500,000 for the gun and said that the money was from both her and her husband. However, he said, the money was really to kill her and that he had already told Barnes.

“I told him the money to buy the gun is not to buy any gun. It is to kill Miss Mack and take it,” he told the court. “I told him that Miss Mack fi get stab, him (her) neck fi cut off, and no gun nuh supposed to use.”

According to Minott, McDonald later called to enquire what he was doing and was told that he was carrying out a “little matter”. But McDonald told him that he had just talked to Tonia and that he was lying.

The witness said that McDonald later told him that he had instructed his wife to leave and she was on her way home, so they left.

Minott will continue his testimony on Monday.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com