THE mother of Tonia McDonald — the slain second wife of Everton ”Beachy Stout” McDonald — told the court Wednesday that her daughter packed a suitcase on numerous occasions and fled her marital home in Portland and sought refuge at her family home in St Mary.

Tonia’s mother was the third witness to take the stand in the murder trial of her daughter’s husband, Beachy Stout, and his co-accused Oscar Barnes in Kingston.

The witness, in her testimony before the Home Circuit Court, said Beachy Stout complained very often about Tonia allegedly having intimate relationships outside of her marriage.

“Anybody who gets married into our family we consider them family. I used to talk to Mr McDonald on the phone. Sometimes when he was coming from Kingston, they would stop by my shop. I would prepare dinner for them. I talked about a lot of stuff with Beachy. Sometimes he would complain to me about the relationship with my daughter. Sometimes I would be up talking to him for up to two hours on the phone.

“When they were having a fuss, he would call and complain, but when they are good, I would hardly hear from him. After she got married, she came back home very regularly. Most times when she came back home, she would come with her suitcase packed. She was running away from her husband. Most times she would just be there for a day because by the day ends, her husband would be there to encourage her to come back,” she told the seven-member jury and trial Judge Justice Chester Stamp.

The couple was married for eight years, up until Tonia’s slaying.

Beachy Stout and Oscar Barnes are on trial for the July 20, 2020 murder of Tonia, whose partially burnt body was found on the Sherwood Forest main road in Portland with multiple stab wounds.

Beachy Stout is accused of ordering the murder of Tonia, while Barnes who was allegedly hired by another man, Denvalyn Minott, who is accused of committing the actual murder.

Tonia’s mother told the court on Wednesday that her daughter always went back home to Beachy Stout after he begged and pleaded for her to do so.

“Most times she was there when he was complaining about her cheating and she said he was always accusing her of cheating. After we spoke he would plead with her to come back home. That was like every single year during the marriage. She came back home all the time. The longest she had spent when she came back was three days. In 2020, she came back home two times.

“The last time she came back home was in June 2020 and that was when she spent the three days. He called her on the phone and said he was coming down. He came down about 12:00 am. He had someone drop him there in my car. I didn’t speak to him that night because I was so upset. In the morning she made him a cup of tea and then he left,” Tonia’s mother said, explaining that after he left her house on that occasion, that was the last time she was seeing him up until Wednesday when she laid eyes on him in court.

Attorney-at-law Ryan Jon-Paul Hamilton, who cross-examined the witness on behalf of Beachy Stout, probed whether Tonia had been entertaining a man by the name of “Dolla Coin”, who Tonia had allegedly said was becoming jealous.

“I know someone by the name Dolla Coin. I know he used to drive her to Kingston at least two time per week. She did not tell me that he sometimes searched her phone,” she said, in response to a follow-up question from Hamilton about Dolla Coin searching Tonia’s phone. The mother said that she had no clue of what Dolla Coin’s relationship with her daughter entailed.

Tonia’s mother said that she recalled giving a statement to the police on July 26, 2020, in which she said that Tonia had told her that Dolla Coin was catching feelings for her and wanted to get intimate and that Tonia wanted to drop his company.

The mother, after her testimony on Wednesday, was released as a witness as there were no further questions to put to her by either prosecutors or defence lawyers.

The trial continues today when two more witnesses are expected to take the stand.