The Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald murder trial faced a hurdle Tuesday morning, when defence attorney Christopher Townsend discovered a serious issue with the disclosure of statements and evidence.

Townsend, one of four attorneys representing Beachy Stout, raised the concern after he came across a statement which was allegedly given by Denvalyn Minoyt, the convict-turned-witness who is currently on the stand.

During cross-examination of the witness in the Home Circuit Court in downtown, Kingston, Townsend began to read a statement that was very unfamiliar to him and immediately brought the issue to the attention of trial judge, Justice Chester Stamp.

“We have observed a serious disclosure issue. There are two written statements concerning this witness that were never served. The first is five pages and the second one is 16 pages, handwritten. They relate to this case significantly,” Townsend said.

The prosecutor interjected, “We have been serving certain documents ongoing. I am just as surprised as my friend to know that they were not served. We have served everything we had on file about two weeks ago”.

Townsend clapped back, emphasising that, “as a matter of fact, these are statements we weren’t even aware of”.

Justice Stamp described the issue as “an extraordinarily shocking development”.

“It is the kind of disclosure that should result in sanction, but I can’t see any course of action that will be in the interest of justice,” he said.

Townsend told Stamp that he has perused the document and said it contained very significant information, which the defence would have used to advance the case.

That prompted Justice Stamp to ask the witness how many statements he gave to the police.

Minott responded by holding up three fingers on one hand and said he gave that number of statements to the police.

Stamp then stood down the matter to give all parties involved time to go through the documents and allow the defence lawyers to take instructions from their clients.

Beachy Stout and co-accused Oscar Barnes are on trial for the murder of the former’s second wife, Tonia McDonald.

It is alleged that Barnes was subcontracted to do the hit ordered by Stout, and that he was directly responsible for stabbing Tonia to death and cutting her throat on the Sherwood Forest main Road in Portland, before setting her and her motor vehicle on fire. The murder occurred on July 20, 2020.

According to the witness, Beachy Stout promised to give him $3 million to kill Tonia, who the businessman had accused of cheating on him with a policeman, robbing over $30 million from his account and sullying his name in the streets.

The witness, Minott, claimed he couldn’t carry out the murder himself and as a result, sub-contracted Barnes for the killing.

Minott is currently serving a close to 20-year prison sentence for being the contractor in the murder. He agreed to give state evidence in the case.