Family happy, lead detective declares justice served by verdict in trial of businessman and co-accused
“Let’s Go!”
Those were the only words uttered from the shaking lips of convicted murderer Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald as he stretched his arms out, inviting the police to slap on the handcuffs and to promptly remove him from the courtroom.
McDonald, 69, and co-accused Oscar Barnes, 39, were found guilty of murder and conspiracy to murder the former’s second wife, Tonia, by a seven-member jury about 3:40 p.m. yesterday in the Home Circuit Court.
Tonia ‘Sassy’ McDonald was 32 when she was killed.
The jurors, consisting of three women and four men, took approximately 64 minutes to arrive at a unanimous verdict.
Tonia’s mother, Sonia Davis-Hamilton, and her sister, Nicole Hamilton-Linton, both wailed on hearing the verdict, with the latter briskly leaving the courtroom so that she wouldn’t disturb trial judge Chester Stamp, who was still presiding over the matter.
Both were present at sittings throughout the six-month-long trial.
They told reporters outside of the courtroom that the time had finally come for them as a family to try to heal from the matter that had taken such a toll on them and had stretched beyond local shores to their siblings and relatives overseas, who had been monitoring the high-profile case.
“I was in there having anxiety attack, waiting for this verdict,” Davis-Hamilton said. “I’m happy about the verdict, very much. This has been for so long, and this family has gone through so much trauma. I’ve lost my husband as well ,and I was shot as well and left for dead in the car with my husband. Based on how things go, it seem like he was the person, the same person who tried to kill both of us.”
Davis-Hamilton was among the 14 witnesses called by the prosecution lawyers consisting of Luke Cook, Crown counsel, and Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Sophia Rowe, to give evidence during the trial.
HAPPY ABOUT VERDICT
“I’m happy about the verdict. Very, very happy. I have two children in the States, one in Canada, and one in England, and they are not even focused on their work nowadays, they are so traumatised. Sassy is the smallest one of the bunch, and she was the one who was taken out,” Davis-Hamilton said.
She said her children have been stressed to the extent that their personal and work lives have been greatly affected.
“This has been very hard for us. My daughter here almost faint after she heard the verdict in the courthouse just now. We have to be fanning her. Normally, she wouldn’t be the one crying. I would be crying all the time, and she would be there for me. It’s been hard for all of us,” Davis-Hamilton said.
A tearful Hamilton-Linton joined in, saying: “I’m feeling overjoyed at the verdict because we have been waiting for this for a long time. It has been six months of waiting and waiting and waiting … . We have been through it. We are a closely knit family, and for one of us to be taken out in this manner, it has been very hard on us. She was the baby of the family, and they took her out in a gruesome manner.”
The prosecution said Tonia’s charred remains were found next to her burnt-out Toyota Axio motor car in Sherwood Forrest in Portland on July 20, 2020.
Her throat had been slashed and she had been stabbed at least nine times, allegedly by Barnes.
The prosecution’s key witness, a self-confessed criminal, Denvalyn ‘Bubbla’ Minott, testified that he had been contracted by McDonald, his former employer, to kill Tonia.
Minott is serving 19 years and 10 months in prison for his role in Tonia’s murder.
He is eligible for parole after 10 years as part of his plea deal.
During his evidence-in-chief, he told the jurors that he had been contracted by McDonald to murder Tonia but did not receive a cent of the $3 million promised by the popular businessman.
Minott further testified that he subcontracted the murder to Barnes, who, allegedly, carried out the act.
Hamilton-Linton said: “As my mom said, my father was also killed, so is not just one victory for us here today because we all know where it came from. This is for my sister and my dad. We can’t bring them back, but at least justice is served. The family is extremely happy, my sisters overseas, they are ringing off my phone because I did tell them that the verdict was guilty.”
She said they want to spend time now healing as a family and trying to bring themselves back to some semblance of normalcy.
“Just for want of a better word because we will never be normal. We will never be the same because of what has happen to us,” Hamilton-Linton said.
She said men who target women are weak and evil.
“I’m looking at him sitting there, and he is a weak and disgusting man, and that is how I feel about him right now. Him could have leave her make she gwaan,” Hamilton-Linton said.
Vincent Wellesley, one of two attorneys representing Barnes, said he was very disappointed with the verdict.
“I do not believe that the evidence was sufficient for them to return such a verdict. My impression, though, having listened to the summation and having discerned at least seven grounds of appeal, my view is that the jurors were misdirected. I don’t believe that the summation was an unbiased summation, and so I know not why they returned a verdict of guilty, but I was not satisfied with the summation,” Wellesley said.
He said he had deduced several grounds and whoever the appeal attorney is should have a field day representing Barnes at the Court of Appeal.
Stamp wrapped up his summation in six days.
“And that, Mr Foreman, is the summary of the case of the prosecution … . It is more detailed than I normally would,” Stamp had said before retiring the jury pool to begin deliberations at 2:19 p.m. yesterday.
The trial judge thanked the jurors for their time in the case and said he hoped that other Jamaicans would be willing to play a similar role.
Earl Hamilton, senior attorney for McDonald’s legal team, told journalists that they had accepted the verdict but that it was not one they had expected.
“We were very positive in the defence we put forward, but for now, we just have to go with what the jury has decided, and we will see what happens after that,” Hamilton said.
The lead investigator, a detective sergeant who was on hand for the verdict, was beaming from ear to ear at the outcome of the high public interest case.
He did not have many words for the media, only saying, “Justice served”.
McDonald and Barnes were remanded in custody until May 16 when they will be sentenced.
The legal woes for McDonald are far from over as he will stand trial next year for the May 2009 murder of his first wife, 50-year-old Merlene ‘Petal’ McDonald.
She was shot and killed outside her Boundbrook, Port Antonio, home in Portland.
