Supreme Court Judge, Justice Chester Stamp, ruled on Monday afternoon to allow the proposal for a voir dire to be conducted, aimed at determining the admissibility of phone recordings from a witness in the Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald and Oscar Barnes murder trial in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston.

A voir dire is essentially a trial that is held within a trial.

Earlier in the day, Stamp had denied the request, stating: “The trial will continue. There shall be no voir dire,” and proceeded to clear the way for a new witness to take the stand at 2:00 pm.

However, by the afternoon, Stamp said that he had reviewed his decision and would allow the voir dire to go on.

READ: Judge denies proposal to determine integrity of phone recordings in ‘Beachy Stout’ trial

Courtney Rowe, one of four attorneys representing Beachy Stout, pushed for the voir dire to determine the integrity of the voice recordings that allegedly contain conversations between Beachy Stout and Denvalyn ‘Bubbla’ Minott, a witness in the case.

Rowe raised questions about the chain of custody of the device used to capture and store over 100 phone recordings.

Prosecutor Sophia Rowe argued that there was no clear-cut reason why the recordings should not be admissible.

The two accused in the matter are on trial for the July 20, 2020 murder of Tonia McDonald, who was Beachy Stout’s second wife. Tonia was brutally stabbed to death and her body, which was eventually found on the Sherwood Forest main road in Portland beside her razed motor car, was partially burnt.

Minott, who provided the police with the recordings, is currently facing a 19-and-a-half-year prison sentence for his role in Tonia’s killing after pleading guilty to the crime and agreeing to give evidence against Beachy Stout in a deal with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.