(Jamaica Star) A contract killer on Monday detailed how he lured Tonia McDonald, wife of popular Portland businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald to a deserted roadway in the parish and watched as the man he sub-contracted stabbed her repeatedly.
The details were outlined in the Home Circuit Court on Monday after Denvalyn Minott, 56, pleaded guilty to murder for his role in the July 20, 2020 killing.
He was yesterday sentenced to 19 years in prison and ordered to serve 10 years before he becomes eligible for parole.
Minott, a fisherman who also resides in Portland, claimed, too, that ‘Beachy Stout’ gave him clear instructions on how his wife should be killed.
“He didn’t want Mrs McDonald to be shot, but that she was to be stabbed up and her body burnt,” he told detectives, according to prosecutors.
Minott admitted that he gave the “work” to another man known to him only as ‘The Yute’. He revealed that on the night of July 20, Tonia McDonald picked him up in her Toyota Axio motor car and he indicated to her that he was going to pick up another man in Port Antonio.
The trio travelled towards Sherwood Forest, he said, when ‘The Yute’ asked Tonia McDonald to stop and turn around the car as they approached a three-way intersection.
Minott recalled stepping out of the vehicle after she complied with the request, causing her to become fearful.
“Weh you a go, me fraid … you no see seh roun’ here dark,” he quoted her as saying. According to Minott, the other man also got out of the car before quickly getting back in.
THEY WERE WRESTLING
“He said the yute grabbed her [Tonia] around the head-rest [of the driver seat] and they were wrestling. He said he then saw when the yute stabbed her and he saw blood coming from her two sides, and her back and her neck,” a prosecutor revealed in court. Minott said the man had a bottle containing some unknown liquid.
Minott said soon after, the car caught fire and he left the scene to call Everton McDonald “and told him what had happened”.
He made the confession in the presence of two justices of the peace. Everton McDonald, also known as ‘Mr Mack’, 65, and another man, Asher Barnes, have been arrested and charged with the gruesome slaying. Minott, in his caution statement which was cited in court by prosecutors, claimed he was contracted by Everton McDonald to kill Tonia.
“He said that the arrangement was that payment of $3 million would be made for the killing of Mrs McDonald,” one prosecutor disclosed, citing the caution statement.
Justice Vivene Harris, who imposed the sentence, called the killing horrifying.
Minott’s confessions were contained in a caution statement he made to detectives assigned to the Major Investigation Division, two weeks after the partially burnt body of the 32-year-old businesswoman was found with its throat slashed inside her car in Sherwood Forest, Portland.
The San San police reported that while the scene was being processed, Everton McDonald arrived and identified his wife’s body as well as her motor car.
Minott reportedly broke down in tears as he recounted to detectives his role in Tonia McDonald’s death.
“Miss Mack trust me too much. She believe in a me, a me mek she go up deh,” he said through tears in the caution statement. Everton McDonald and Barnes are scheduled to return to court today.