KINGSTON, Jamaica – Denvalyn Minott, the second witness to take the stand in the murder trial of Everton “Beachy Stout” McDonald and his co-accused Oscar Barnes, said that shortly after Beachy Stout’s wife Tonia McDonald was murdered and her car set on fire, he tried to stop a police car to tell cops what had happened but the vehicle did not stop.

The witness recounted the incident in the Home Circuit Court, downtown Kingston, on Tuesday.

Minott also claimed that Barnes had pointed a gun at him after Tonia was killed and asked him where he was heading when he started to walk away from the scene. He claimed that while Tonia was lying on the ground beside her vehicle, lifeless, Barnes poured liquid inside the motor vehicle and set it ablaze, using a lighter.

Minott told the court that when the car started to “blaze up”, he ran down the road to a location where the murder and fire scene was out of sight. It was not long after that, that the witness said he saw a police vehicle heading in the direction where the crime took place.

The witness said he had planned “to make a complaint” about the murder of Tonia if the police vehicle had stopped.

Tonia was stabbed repeatedly and killed on the Sherwood Forest main road in Portland on July 20, 2020. Her burnt body was later found beside her razed Toyota Axio motor car.

READ: Wife of businessman ‘Beachy Stout’ killed in Portland

Minott, who was initially charged with the murder, along with Beachy Stout and Barnes, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 19-and-a-half years in prison, leaving Beachy Stout and Barnes to face trial in the matter.

READ: Beachy Stout’s wife cried out for mother while being killed, ‘hitman’ claims

Minott, who subsequently agreed to give evidence in the case, said in court Tuesday: “I walked down the road and I saw a police vehicle heading up the road with blue light. I tried to stop them but they didn’t see me, so I took a taxi and went home. I woke up the other morning and called a friend of mine and tell him about it because I didn’t like the situation. I then went to Port Antonio to the police station to make a report, but I didn’t make the report. I was feeling uncomfortable so I walked out of the station and went home.”

The witness alleged that Beachy Stout, who had pressured him to have his wife killed, was not forthcoming with the $3 million he had allegedly promised to pay for the contract killing of Tonia.

“The first time I went to visit him after the murder it was in his supermarket upstairs in the office. I went to him because I wanted the money to pay Barnes [who was allegedly subcontracted to do the killing]. When I went to him, he said, ‘You think a suh $3 million easy fi work?’ He then started to mention things that happened in the past. I told him that it is time now for the money because he was the one pressuring me for the job to be done. I told him that I needed it and I also wanted back my personal phone. He said I should check him back and I left without the money. His number called me the following week on the Monday, but he was not the person speaking to me. It was his worker,” Minott claimed.

Whatever Minott was told on the phone prompted him to visit the supermarket owned by Beachy Stout in Port Antonio, Portland.

“I saw Beachy Stout that day. He told me he liked what had happened but him seh him can’t make nobody see me and him a talk. I cut the conversation and left. I didn’t get any money. I spoke to him the Wednesday in Ranch Hill district, Norwich, on the road in his black BMW. When he was turning the vehicle, he said, ‘Mi carry something for you inuh, man.’ He took out a banger phone from the pocket inside the BMW and said to me, ‘Call mi pon da number yah.’ He gave me a new chip for the phone and said to call him from it because he didn’t have the number yet.”

The witness told the court that he was keeping a secret from Beachy Stout. He claimed that the businessman had given him strict instructions that the murder was to be carried out by him alone and that there was to be, “no twosome” or “threesome”.

The witness said that because he didn’t know how to cut the throat of a human he contracted Barnes, who he trusted could complete the job. Barnes completed the job and, therefore, the witness endeavoured to honour his commitment to the alleged killer.

Minott also told the court that on another occasion he called Beachy Stout to talk about “a lot of things”. He said after speaking to Beachy Stout, he went into the phone and found an audio file which he said he thought was a song. It turned out that it was not a song, and according to the witness, was a recording of a conversation between himself and Beachy Stout.

He claimed that Beachy Stout called him on a different occasion and told him that, “You bingo.”

“I hung up the phone. I went to his supermarket on William Street the Saturday to talk about the money. He told me he was going to pay me but mi fi hold on a little bit. I wanted Mr Barnes to get his money, but I didn’t tell Beach Stout because he already tell me not to use anybody else.”

The witness detailed for the court what he remembered from the day Tonia was killed. He said he met up with her around one o’ clock in the afternoon and “asked for a money”. Minott said Tonia gave him $500.

He had previously engaged Tonia in conversation about purchasing a gun for her after she explained to him, in the presence of Beachy Stout, that she wanted a firearm to buy in order to kill the man who murdered her father.

However, he also alleged that it was Beachy Stout’s idea to bring Tonia to him with the proposal and said it was all part of the plot to lure her and have her murdered. The witness claimed that sometime before the day Tonia was killed, he and Barnes had lured her to a location under the pretence of purchasing the gun, but the attempt to kill her failed.

After Tonia gave Minott the $500 on the day she was killed, he said he told her that she “can get the something later”.

“I was talking about the gun. She responded, and I told her she was barefaced. She went upstairs and said she would come and check me. I saw her again in the night, about seven o’clock. She picked me up at Willie Building where there is a pharmacy, phone shop, and clothes store. She was driving the white Axio and no one else was in the vehicle. We went to Still Corner to pick up Mr Barnes.

“I had told him earlier that, ‘A tonight we a go do it.’ He asked me what time and I told him to meet me at Still Corner. When we got to Still Corner, Mr Barnes was sitting on a wall at the seaside. I told Mrs Mac to stop and let me call him. He came inside the car and sat behind Mrs Mac and then I told her to drive off. We headed to Sherwood Forest. We saw a house and light and then we ended up in some bushes. I never know the place. When we reached a T-junction, Mr Barnes said we can stop here,” Minott told the court.

He added that Barnes instructed Tonia to turn the car around and she complied and turned off the lights.

“Mi come out and leave she and Mr Barnes in the car. Mrs Mac said to me, ‘Weh you a go leave mi, you nuh see seh round here suh dark?’ While I was standing beside the car, Mr Barnes grabbed her around her neck from backway and started to stab her. She start to bawl out. She shout out and seh, ‘Mi mother want mi,’ and then mi see blood start spray out of her. I stood up in the road and mi never know what to do. Mr Barnes then go back and pull the same back door and Mrs Mac drop out of the car and on the road.

“When she was getting stab up she was kicking and fighting. He pulled her into the back of the car because she was fighting and wrestling with him and so she came over into the back seat. She was lying in the road and I went over her, bent down and was looking at her. I wanted to walk away when Mr Barnes asked me where I was going. He then pointed a gun at me.

“I told him I was going home. Before he moved, he took out a bottle from his pocket. He was throwing something from the bottle into the car. When the car blazed up, I ran back on the way to Port Antonio. I left Mr Barnes at the car. Mr McDonald told me that the car was to be burned and I told Mr Barnes that. I called Beachy Stout and I said, ‘Mrs Mac dead, inuh.’ He said, ‘A who this?’ And I said, ‘Mrs Mac is dead, it is finished,’ and he said, ‘Good’,” Barnes alleged.