Beachy Stout bail fate today
Published:Wednesday | June 2, 2021 | 12:11 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
After hearing fresh evidence against Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald, who is charged with the murders of two wives, Justice Vinette Graham Allen is to rule today in the Gun Court on whether he will be granted bail.
The much-anticipated bail decision, which has been pending since April 30, was further delayed after the prosecution obtained new evidence against the 67-year-old accused.
The judge was asked to hear submissions on the information before handing down her ruling.
Details surrounding the new evidence were revealed on Tuesday in court after members of the media were asked to withdraw from the hearing. That action was prompted by the prosecutor, who indicated to the judge that the information was “extremely sensitive” and it would be in the interest of justice for it not to be disclosed to the public.
Following the hearing, Justice Graham Allen informed both the defence and the prosecution that she would give her ruling today.
McDonald, who appeared via Zoom, was remanded.
The Portland businessman is charged along with Oscar Barnes in one of the incidents.
Barnes, however, was absent from Tuesday’s hearing as the court was informed that the Half- Way Tree lock-up, where he was being held, had technological challenges and could not join remotely.
Barnes and McDonald are charged with the murder of the businessman’s second wife, Tonia McDonald, on July 20, 2020.
Tonia’s partially burnt body was found with the throat slashed beside her torched car along the Sherwood Forest main road in Portland last July.
Another man, Denvalyn Minott, said to be the contract killer, was also arrested and charged but pleaded guilty in the Home Circuit Court last September and was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
The contract killer, in a witness statement, claimed that he was offered $3 million by the Portland businessman to end his wife’s life.
But Minott revealed in the statement that he hired another man to carry out the crime and that he watched as the man repeatedly stabbed the 32-year-old businesswoman.
In the first matter, a cold case, McDonald is charged in connection with the killing of Merlene McDonald, who was shot dead outside her home in Boundbrook, Portland, in May 2009.
It is alleged that he had paid a police detective to kill his wife after their marriage crumbled and she left the matrimonial home.
Attorneys-at-law Bert Samuels and Matthew Hyatt are representing McDonald while attorney-at-law Earnest Davis is representing Barnes.