Fearful witness reportedly declined to give statement on planned acid attack

A police corporal has testified that the man whom Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald had reportedly hired to disfigure his wife with ‘black acid’ had refused to give a statement, claiming he feared for his life.

A police informant, who is an incarcerated witness, on Thursday testified that the 68-year-old businessman had hired him to harm his wife, Tonia, and gave him $60,000 to purchase the substance.

Before completing his evidence yesterday, he admitted under cross-examination from Jon-Paul Hamilton, one of McDonald’s five lawyers, that he used to transact business with criminal and was himself a criminal.

He also stated that he knew McDonald to be a criminal as well.

The salesman, who is serving a sentence for misprision of a felony and receiving stolen goods, also admitted that he was convicted in 1999 for receiving stolen goods. He also accepted that he was charged with murder and conspiracy to murder, but that the charges were dropped.

The witness, who claimed he first met McDonald in 2019, said they met again in January 2020, when the businessman brought him to a plaza in Portland, where his wife was in a salon drying her hair, and egged him on to harm her there, but that he refused because she was “so beautiful”.

The court also heard from the witness that after he snuck away and left the plaza, he went to the Port Antonio Police Station and reported the matter to an officer, who had previously arrested him for larceny of cattle. The bottle with the substance was also reportedly handed over to the police.

The witness said he had also accompanied the police to the supermarket and showed him Tonia.

After taking the witness stand yesterday, the corporal, who has served in the Jamaica Constabulary Force for 35 years and two days, corroborated the salesman’s evidence.

He confirmed that the police’s informant, who he described as his friend, had made a report to him and gave him a bottle with the black liquid.

Additionally, he said the fourth witness also took him to the supermarket and showed him a woman, who identified herself as ‘Sassy’ and ‘Tonia McDonald’.

Could not proceed with case

However, the corporal said the witness had refused to give a statement, claiming that he was fearful for his life. As a result, the cop said he could not proceed with the case.

But attorney-at-law John Jacobs, who is also representing McDonald, sought to discredit the police witness’ evidence by suggesting that the corporal colluded with detectives from the Major Investigation Division (MID) to fabricate the acid mission story with the police informant’s help.

But this was rejected by the corporal, who also denied fabricating two statements he had given to the police.

Jacobs also grilled the corporal about a declaration that was missing from both his statements.

The corporal had agreed that it was a normal police procedure for the declaration to be written at the end of each statement and that, essentially, the declaration was a statement saying that the information was true and honest and was not fabricated.

But when he was initially asked by Jacobs whether there was no declaration on either statement, the witness said he could not recall. However, he later agreed that the statements did not have any declarations.

But the corporal shot down a suggestion from Jacobs that the declaration was absent because the statements were made up, while pointing out that it was the responsibility of the officer who had recorded the statement to ensure that the declaration was included.

Further during the cross-examination, the corporal denied that he had not collected any bottle with black liquid and that he and the MID made up the story about “aciding Tonia” to bolster the Crown’s case against his client.

McDonald and Oscar Barnes, a 33-year-old tiler from St Mary, are both on trial in the Home Circuit court for Tonia’s July 20, 2020 murder.

The woman’s partially burnt body was found along a deserted road in Sherwood Forest, Portland, with the throat slashed and multiple stab wounds.

A self-confessed contract killer, who was given a 19-year sentence with a stipulation that he serve 10 years before parole for his role in her death, earlier testified that McDonald had hired him to kill Tonia for $3 million, but that he subcontracted Barnes to commit the act.

The trial will resume on Monday.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com