Accused’s attorney suggests video evidence of arrest withheld by lawmen

Vincent Wellesley, defence lawyer for the man alleged to have killed Tonia McDonald, has suggested that the chief investigator has withheld some of the video evidence from the prosecution pertaining to the arrest and identification of his client.

The attorney, who is representing Oscar Barnes, 33, St Mary tiler, made the suggestion while cross-examining the videographer, a detective sergeant, during the murder trial in the Home Circuit Court.

Barnes and Tonia’s husband, Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald, are on trial for the murder of the 32-year-old businesswoman.

Tonia’s partly burnt body was found on a deserted road along Sherwood Forest in Portland with the throat slashed and multiple stab wounds on July 20, 2020.

The contract killer, Devalyn Minott, who is currently serving a 19-year prison sentence for his role in the murder, previously testified that Beachy Stout had hired him to kill his wife for $3 million and that he subcontracted the hit to Barnes.

The defendant was subsequently arrested in Annotto Bay, St Mary, on August 5, 2020, after Minott pointed him out to the police.

The trial was previously shown a short recording of the arrival of the police at the spot in St Mary where Barnes was pointed out while sitting on a chair along the street.

The police sergeant who recorded the video earlier testified that she had stopped the recording as she was unable to see from where the vehicle in which she was travelling had parked.

She also told the court that she was not able to record the actual arrest of Barnes because her colleagues left her behind to guard Minott, and she could not see what was happening from where she was.

Yesterday, when the trial resumed, Wellesley suggested to the officer that she had lied about stopping the recording, but she disagreed and insisted that she did not stop the recording and was being truthful.

“And you did not turn over that footage to the prosecution?” Wellesley said.

“All footages were turned over to the persecution,” the sergeant maintained.

“I am suggesting that Mr …. told you not to give the prosecution all the footage?” Wellesley continued.

The officer again denied the suggestion while later pointing out that she had handed over all the footage to the investigating unit at the Major Investigations Division.

In the meantime, a communication forensic expert who had analysed the call data records of four numbers, which were submitted to the police’s Communication Forensics and Cybercrime Unit (CFCU) for analysis in connection with the murder, took the stand yesterday and will continue today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com