Barnes said he could have saved Tonia, court hears

Oscar Barnes, the alleged killer of Portland businesswoman Tonia McDonald, reportedly told the police in a caution statement that he could have saved the woman’s life.

“Mi could a save ‘Sassy’ life. Mi know somebody a go dead,” he reportedly said in the caution statement, referring to the 32-year-old woman by her alias.

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

A confessed killer in her murder, Denvalyn Minott, who was sentenced to 19 years, told the court that her husband, Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald, had offered him $3 million to kill Tonia, but he gave the deadly mission to Barnes.

According to the convict, after making arrangements with him to kill his wife, McDonald had convinced Tonia that Minott could help her to acquire a gun – which she was seeking to avenge her father’s death – so that Minott could get close to her.

He also testified that on the day that she was murdered, he had tricked her into going to Sherwood Forest under the guise of collecting the gun and that it was Barnes who had killed her as he watched.

McDonald and Barnes are currently on trial for Tonia’s murder in the Home Circuit Court.

During the continuation of his evidence-in-chief on Thursday, the lead investigator read a detailed caution statement, which he testified that he had recorded from Barnes in his notebook.

“Even Thursday before she dead, mi deh a di same place weh unno (cops) pick mi up and him circle mi and seh him want two 9mm fi buy. Yuh get mi?” the detective sergeant read.

“Mi seh to him, ‘Manchioneal and dem place deh dem tings deh’. Is a man from Annotto Bay him come fi buy it from. Mi nuh know him; him nuh know mi neither. Him seh a Annotto Bay him come fi buy it from. Mi nuh know him. Right deh suh him start fi squeal out everything,” Barnes is further alleged to have said.

The statement was reportedly recorded after the police had arrested Barnes in Annotto Bay, St Mary, after he was pointed out by Minott.

Barnes, in the alleged caution statement, said he was told that the guns were for each of the couple.

“Him never identify any a dem, like talk a who [dem] a guh kill,” the investigator read.

Continuing, Barnes said that a black-tinted car picked up him and Minott, and while on the journey, Tonia called Minott and asked if he had got through. She was told that it was being handled.

“Because mi know how deh so stay, so a that’s why mi seh to him (Minott), ‘Bad man, it better yuh go up so. Shout di female.’

“Di female did a come a [Annotto] Bay and him tell har seh nuh fi bother come and we end up guh a Manchioneal because di time run out. Mi nuh bother guh up deh. Mi stop inna Porti (Port Antonio),” the court heard as the investigator read further.

Barnes also said in the statement that McDonald called Minott non-stop during the trip and that it appeared that Minott was afraid of the businessman.

However, he identified McDonald only as “di man”, while noting that “di man did a seh mi and him can go deal wid it”.

According to Barnes, in the caution statement, Minott told him that a man paid him $1 million to kill his wife and that he had two other similar contracts.

He said he was also told that the man had given instructions for his wife not to be killed by gunshots.

“Him seh di man girl caah get nuh gunshot, and him pull out di knife out a him waist and show mi and seh him affi cut har throat. Mi seh, ‘Yuh caah do dat in a di man dem place’. Him have a tall knife, about one ruler length,” the investigator read.

The investigator said, following the caution statement, that he interviewed Barnes on August 10, 2020, in the presence of his attorneys and 135 questions were asked.

Additionally, he said that McDonald was asked 137 questions.

The investigator said he later charged both men with murder and murder conspiracy, and when cautioned about the charges, McDonald said, “Ok, charge mi, nuh. Mi nuh do anything of that sort. I am innocent.”

In the meanwhile, the investigator also testified that a glass bottle with an unknown black substance was found in a grey cupboard in McDonald’s office at his supermarket.

The trial previously heard from two witnesses that the businessman had sent them to purchase a corrosive substance to disfigure his wife’s face.

The trial continues today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com