Witness breaks down when asked whereabouts of Beachy Stout’s wife
Published:Wednesday | September 27, 2023 | 12:11 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The murder trial of businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald in the case of his wife, Tonia McDonald, resumed in the Home Circuit Court on Monday with a rehashing of testimony.
The first witness, a former employee of the businessman, told the court that he first met Tonia when ‘Mrs Mac’ (McDonald’s first wife, Merlene) died in 2009.
He said that he purchased a cell phone for $18,000 on her behalf, courtesy of Mr McDonald.
The witness said that he started to notice that Tonia and McDonald would not be together often, from about 2015.
“In 2019, the relationship was already rocky. Most of the nights when shop close or when I go upstairs, I heard him arguing with her about having man and every minute, she leave the business and gone,” the witness said.
He told the court that he and others at the workplace called her ‘Sassy’, a name that McDonald did not like and warned them that if he heard them calling her that, they would be fired.
The witness told the court that McDonald trusted him and that they shared a father-son relationship of sorts.
“He trusted me with his money, … gun,” the witness shared.
He added whenever Tonia gave orders, the workers would carry it out because she was the boss’ wife.
STRANGE ENCOUNTER
He recalled a strange encounter with McDonald one day after work.
“How you nuh tell mi say Tonia have man?” he recalled being asked.
“We would talk about who him a go kill and shoot. He always said him nuh drink him coffee hot. Him say him wait until it cool,” the witness testified.
He said that McDonald first asked him in 2012 or 2013 whether he felt that Tonia had another man.
The witness told the court that the couple were on an emotional roller-coaster as one minute they could be happy and the next, there would be an argument.
Those arguments, he testified, were based on McDonald’s accusations of her having “another man” or of what the husband deemed Tonia’s lack of “interest in the business”.
When asked where Tonia was today, the witness, who said he had developed a trusting relationship with Tonia, broke down in tears before responding that she was dead.
He was given a break to release his emotions as he sobbed.
The witness also broke down during his evidence-in-chief last week as he answered the same question.
The court adjourned the matter after the witness broke down.
The trial will continue today with a continuation of testimony.
McDonald is being represented by attorneys Earl Hamilton, Courtney Rowe, Christopher Townsend and John Jacobs, while Earnest Davies is representing his co-accused, Oscar Barnes.
McDonald’s bail, which was reinstated on Monday, was extended ahead of his return to court today.
Meanwhile, McDonald is also charged with the May 2009 murder of his first wife Merlene, 50, who was gunned down at her gate outside her home at Boundbrook Avenue in Portland.
He is to be tried alone for that matter in January 2024.
Investigators reopened that case in 2020 following Tonia’s murder.