A cellphone that Denvalyn Minott began to use, following the 2020 murder of Tonia McDonald, secretly recorded around 120 telephone conversations between himself and Tonia’s husband, Everton ”Beachy Stout” McDonald, who was charged for her killing.

Minott told the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston on Wednesday that he went into the settings on the phone and selected an option that activated call recording after numerous failed attempts to collect the $3 million he said he was promised by the Portland businessman, Beachy Stout, for the murder of Tonia.

“I did not receive the $3-million payment. I didn’t receive any money at all,” Minott, the second witness in the murder trial of Beachy Stout and his co-accused Oscar Barnes, said in his testimony.

Minott pointed out that Beachy Stout made him an offer whilst he insisted and convinced him to kill Tonia, despite him telling the businessman that he did not know how to do those things.

“I felt depressed because he said, ‘nuh let me down’,” he said.

Beachy Stout’s wife Tonia was killed on July 20, 2020 in Sherwood Forest, Portland. Her body and her car were burned after she was stabbed multiple times and her throat slashed.

Beachy Stout allegedly contracted Minott to kill Tonia, who he accused of cheating on him with a policeman and other men.

Meanwhile, in a shocking revelation in court on Wednesday, Minott claimed he had a sexual relationship with Tonia McDonald.

“The relationship was intimate. She used to give him trouble with me. I was part of her life, like relationship and having sex with her. It ended because she is dead,” Minott claimed.

Apart from suspecting that his wife was cheating, the witness said Beachy Stout also accused her of stealing over $30 million from him.

Minott said he agreed to kill Tonia after Beachy Stout offered him $3 million to do the job. Without any down payment or deposit from Beachy Stout, Minott said he contracted Barnes to kill Tonia because he himself didn’t have the skills or knowledge to stab her and cut her throat as was the alleged wish of her husband.

Minott pleaded guilty for being the contractor in the murder and was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison.

He later agreed to become Crown witness and decided to give testimony against Beachy Stout and Barnes.

Minott claimed that after Barnes, the alleged killer, completed the job he began to press him about the payment he was to get for carrying out the murder.

“After the killing, I saw Mr Barnes again, in the last week of July. I left my house with my wife and one of my sons on a Tuesday morning at 9 o’clock. I asked a taxi man to bring my wife to Kingston to work. I reached Annotto Bay and asked the taxi man to stop so I could go and see Mr Barnes, but he wasn’t there beside the Chinese supermarket,” Minott said, in reference to the business establishment that is beside an alley where he said he met up with Barnes on numerous occasions.

“I turned away and went back in the car. I then headed to Kingston. I saw Mr Barnes that evening about 3:00 pm at the Chinese supermarket. He asked if it was the money I brought for him and I told him no. I told him that I talked to Beachy Stout. Barnes asked how long it would take to get it. I told him we would meet in the town. I walked away. I spoke to him again one Wednesday in Port Antonio.

“I met him at a taxi stand and I took him on William Street for him to get the money. I took him to a bar and told him to wait while I get the money for him. I headed to Beachy Stout supermarket on William Street and I didn’t see him but I spoke to the security. I turned back and go back to Barnes and said that the boss was busy right now and we have to check him back. Mr Barnes said, ‘You have me a do things I am not supposed to do. Mi want the money’ and he just walked away with vexation on his face. I didn’t meet with him again.”

The witness went on to tell the court that he saved phone conversations between himself and Beachy Stout under the name Vybz Kartel, in the event someone found the phone and the memory card. He assumed that anyone who found it would think it was music on the chip.

According to Minott, he handed the phone over to the police when they came and searched his house then arrested him in August 2020.

“At 5 o’clock the Monday morning, I was inside my house with one of my sons when I heard someone playing with the door lock. I got up and went to the window, drew the curtain and peep outside, but I didn’t see anything. I went to my room and then I heard the front door playing with again. I go in my son room to look and he was still in his bed. I came back in my room and took up the machete and went to the door and asked ‘a who dat?’

“The person said ‘police!’ ‘Bubbla, open the door’. I asked them to come to the window so I can prove that it was police. Two of them came to the window with an envelope that stated search warrant. I opened the door and the police came in and took up a bag with some receipt. They took my ID and US$650, 000 in bogus money. The police handcuffed me, locked up the house and took me and my son to Kingston.”