Victim’s mom says accused would spend hours complaining to her about daughter

Portland businesswoman Tonia McDonald “was always running away from her husband”, and for every year that she was married, would return to her original family home with a packed suitcase.

Her husband, well-known businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald, who is on trial for her murder in the Home Circuit Court, would reportedly show up at the family home in St Mary, begging and encouraging her to return to their matrimonial home.

Accusations of cheating by Tonia were at the centre of the McDonalds’ tumultuous relationship. The court was previously told that the couple got married soon after the murder of Beachy Stout’s first wife in 2009.

Tonia’s mother, Sonia Davis Hamilton, in making the revelation yesterday, said her daughter would return home at different intervals and that a month before she was murdered, returned home for three days.

“The longest she ever stay. She will come and spend the night, and by morning she gone,” said the widow, who broke down in tears as she spoke about her deceased daughter and husband during her emotionally charged testimony.

The mother, who appeared dispirited and slightly upset, said, “She would be home in three months, then the next six months. She would be coming home all the time.”

Tonia, 32, was found with her throat slashed and multiple stab wounds along a deserted road in Sherwood Forest, Portland, on July 20, 2020.

Her husband and her alleged killer, Oscar Barnes, are currently on trial for her murder.

According to a self-confessed contract killer Denvalyn Minott, Beachy Stout contracted him to kill Tonia, but he subcontracted the hit to Barnes.

Davis Hamilton told the court that Tonia returned home about two times in 2020 before she was killed. On her last visit, the mother said Beachy Stout visited the home about midnight after calling her daughter and left in the morning after his wife made him tea.

Asked if she spoke to him that day, the mother said, “I was so upset I did not come out of my bed.”

According to Davis Hamilton, Beachy Stout would be the one to complain. “All the time he would be complaining about her cheating.”

The witness said Beachy Stout, with whom she once enjoyed a good relationship, would call her regularly when they were at odds and would sometimes spend two hours with her on the phone.

“When they having a fuss he would call and complain, but when everything was good, I would not hear from him,” she shared while Beachy Stout, who had sat up for her evidence, looked on with a blank expression. Prior to her taking the stand, he had his head down in his lap.

But Davis Hamilton, who had a close relationship with her daughter, said Tonia told her that it was just accusations.

Not invited to wedding

The mother further testified that Tonia’s family, including her father and three sisters, at one point had a good relationship with Beachy Stout and would visit him and Tonia regularly for dinner as well as for Christmas.

However, she said the family was not invited to the wedding and that Tonia told her about it after it was official.

The mother also disclosed that the couple had hidden the relationship at first and that she became aware of the relationship about a year or two after they started.

In the meantime, the defence, during cross-examination of the witness, sought to establish that Tonia had had an affair with a driver, known as ‘Dollar Coin’, who transported her to Kingston to purchase goods.

Attorney-at-law Jean Paul Hamilton asked Davis Hamilton if she was aware that her daughter spent quite a bit of time with Dollar Coin. While she denied knowing that, she indicated that she was aware that he would take her to Kingston twice weekly.

Asked further if she was aware that their relationship was not just professional, the mother said, “She did not discuss that with me.”

At the same time, she recalled being told by Tonia that Dollar Coin was getting jealous of her but denied being told that he wanted to search her phone.

However, she later admitted that she had put in her statement that Tonia told her that “Dollar Coin a gwaan like him waa catch feelings and him waa more intimacy out a di relationship.”

But she denied putting in the statement that she told her that he wanted to search Tonia’s phone.

The trial will continue today, with a new witness taking the stand.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com