Witness tackled on inconsistencies in testimony

DEFENCE COUNSEL Christopher Townsend yesterday continued to chip away at the credibility of the main witness in the 2020 murder Tonia McDonald while highlighting numerous inconsistencies and omissions.

However, the contract killer, Denvalyn ‘Bubbla’ Minott, blamed the police for some of the inconsistencies, claiming that they wrote things that he did not say.

Minott also pointed to his inability to read as a reason for some of the omissions and inconsistencies, while acknowledging that others were genuine errors.

At the same time, he admitted that although his statements were read over to him, he signed them as being the truth despite knowing that they contained lies.

However, when pressed on whether he was forced or was given the ability to make corrections, Minott backtracked, claiming that no lies were in the statements.

The witness, who is already serving a 19-year sentence for his role in the murder, has maintained that he was contracted by Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald to murder his wife, but that he offered the job to Oscar Barnes, as he was unable to carry out the killing.

The married Portland fisherman, who claimed he was involved in a sexual relationship with Tonia up to the time of her death in July 2020, also told the Home Circuit Court that he was the one who had lured her to her death and had watched as she was stabbed multiple times.

McDonald, 68, and St Mary tiler Barnes are currently on trial for the murder of the 32-year-old businesswoman, whose body was found with the throat slashed and nine stab wounds along a deserted road in Sherwood Forest, Portland.

Yesterday, as the trial resumed, Townsend, who is one of five lawyers representing the Portland businessman, again quizzed the witness about the three statements he gave to the police.

ADMITTING TO LYING

Last week, Minott admitted to lying in at least one of his statements but wasn’t sure which one.

However, during his testimony yesterday, he claimed he told the truth in his third statement.

Yet, he conceded in that very statement, he failed to tell the police that when he spoke to McDonald for the first time at his supermarket, he had asked for a job for his son or about the plot to murder Tonia.

“Nowhere there did you tell the police about any arrangement to kill Mrs McDonald,” Townsend said as Minott disagreed.

However, after his statement was read to him, he reluctantly accepted that it was not recorded.

At the same time, he denied lying to the police in that statement.

He maintained that McDonald had offered him the hitman job in their first conversation.

According to Minott, he had also asked for a job for himself but did not tell the jury that he had asked about the job for his son.

Minott had testified that he had asked Tonia for the job.

When asked about that, he said he still went ahead and asked her a day after her husband had already given his son a job and he was working.

Minott, in his evidence-in-chief, told the court that McDonald had offered him the hitman job, saying he had a “better job for him” after he approached him at his supermarket seeking a job to offload goods from the delivery truck.

When he said he could not recall the date, he was accused by Townsend of fabricating a story.

“Anything a mek up, a you a do dat,” the testy and emotional Minott fired back as Townsend accused him of being rude.

The witness was then asked about his first meeting with Tonia, which he earlier claimed was at the supermarket where he asked for the job for his son, but Townsend said he first met her when her husband introduced her to him during a visit to his home.

“Sir, that could not be the truth. Are you making up the story as you go along?” Townsend asked Minott, who denied doing so.

He was further asked about the correct date for the four trips which he testified that he had made with Barnes and others to kill Tonia as he told the prosecutor that it was in February, but told Townsend that it was in June or July.

Asked if he had lied about the date being in February, Minott said it was a mistake.

Minott will continue on the stand when the trial resumes today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com