KINGSTON, Jamaica – The trial of Portland businessman, Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald and his co-accused, Oscar Barnes in the Home Circuit Court experienced delay on Thursday as one of the seven jurors was absent.

The matter was scheduled to continue about 2:00 pm on Thursday, but failed to get underway as the juror was said to be unavoidably absent.

The trial is expected to resume on Friday.

McDonald and Barnes are on trial for the July 2020 murder of the businessman’s second wife, Tonia McDonald.

Beachy Stout is accused of hiring Denvalyn Minott to kill Tonia. The alleged price tag for the murder was $3 million. Minott, who is serving a 19-year prison sentence for being the contractor in the murder, agreed to turn Crown witness in the matter and has maintained during his testimony in court that he subcontracted the hit to co-accused, Oscar Barnes, who he claimed killed the businessman’s wife.

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

The trial hit a hurdle on Tuesday when defence attorney Christopher Townsend discovered an issue with the disclosure of statements and evidence.

Townsend came across statements which were allegedly given by Denvalyn Minott, the convict-turned-witness who is currently on the stand, which the attorney took issue with.

READ: ‘Shocking development’ over witness statements in Beachy Stout trial

“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 trial judge, Justice Chester Stamp.

Prosecutor, Sohia Rowe responded saying that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has, “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,” she said.

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

For Justice Stamp, the issue was “an extraordinarily shocking development”.

According to the judge, “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.

The judge then stood down the matter to allow all parties involved to go through the documents and to allow attorneys to take instructions from their clients.

The attorneys representing Beachy Stout McDonald are Earl Hamilton, Courtney Rowe, Christopher Townsend and John Jacobs.

Oscar Barnes is being represented by Ernest Davies and Vincent Wellesley.

– Jason Cross