Lying witness admits to shooting 'one or two people' with fish gun

THE CONVICTED contract killer in the murder of businesswoman Tonia McDonald yesterday admitted that a man who he had shot with a fish gun disappeared before their case was tried and has not been seen since.

Denvalyn ‘Bubbla’ Minott, while undergoing cross-examination from attorney-at-law Christopher Townsend, also confirmed that the case was thrown out as a result of the man going missing.

But he denied that he benefited from the man’s disappearance.

Minott, who is currently serving 19 years in prison for his role in the woman’s murder, is a prosecution witness in the murder trial of businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald, 68, and Oscar Barnes, a 33-year-old St Mary tiler.

The married convict earlier testified that he had been contracted by McDonald to kill his wife, Tonia, for $3 million but hired Barnes to do the killing as he had never killed anyone before and could not do it.

However, yesterday, during cross-examination in the Home Circuit Court, Minott, who grudgingly admitted to being a convicted murderer and thief, also acknowledged that he had shot one or two people with his fish gun.

While denying that he would chop people from time to time, Minott readily accepted that he would often pull his machete at them.

But although he agreed that those acts were criminal, he rejected the notion that he was a culprit.

“I am not a criminal. I just commit crimes,” he said.

“You have been a criminal all your life?” Townsend asked.

“No, sir,” he replied.

Minott further denied knowing about a statement that his son had given to the police in which he claimed that his father was an area don and rejected the claim.

The witness was also grilled at length by Townsend about the lies he had told since the investigation of the case began to date and readily admitted that he had told several lies.

The witness admitted that he gave the police a statement with three versions of events.

“Tell us, in how many of the statements did you lie?” Townsend asked.

“In one,” he replied, further pointing that he was not sure which one contained the lies.

THREE DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS

Minott further agreed that he had admitted to giving three different accounts but insisted that it was not a confession about him lying.

“I never confess say me is a liar, sir. You asked me a question and mi answer it,” Minott answered.

The murder convict also admitted to lying during his evidence-in-chief.

The witness conceded that he had lied when he testified that McDonald offered him the job to kill his wife when he first went to his supermarket looking for work.

According to him, the truth was that he was not offered the killing job during that encounter as McDonald told him to “check him back later”.

Asked about a plea deal that he signed with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Minott said that when he started to sign the document, his attorney was not present.

However, after being shown a copy of the plea deal, he backtracked on his reply.

“Do you agree that you told a lie just now and you are a liar, correct?” Townsend asked to which Minott replied “Yes.”

“You told a lie on even your son?” the lawyer continued.

Minott, however, said: “No, sir.”

Townsend then reminded Minott about his testimony in which he said that he told McDonald during a phone conversation that he was with his son when he was, in fact, with Barnes.

“You just realise you tell a lie on your son?” Townsend asked after the witness was slow in answering the question.

“So you will agree with me that you don’t care who you tell lies on. You tell lies on your son, you tell lies on your lawyer, correct? Townsend asked to which Minott replied, “Yes, sir.”

Further in the cross-examination, Minott also denied that he had told prisoners that he was expecting a lesser sentence and that he did not get what he had expected after implicating McDonald.

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

But Minott, who claimed he was sexually involved with Tonia and had watched as she was killed, said he was never paid the $3 million he had been promised for the hit and that Barnes never got his cut.

The trial will resume on October 23.

Attorney-at-law Earl Hamilton and his son John-Paul, Courtney Rowe, and John Jacobs are representing McDonald, and Ernest Davis and Vincent Wellesley are appearing for Barnes.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com