News Briefs

‘Beachy Stout’ charged with first wife’s murder

Portland businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald has been charged in connection with the 2009 murder of his first wife, Merlene McDonald.

McDonald is also now on charges in relation to the murder of his second wife, Tonia McDonald.

The businessman and his co-accused, Asca Barnes, were taken into custody on August 5, 2020.

He is accused of orchestrating the murder of Tonia, whose partially burnt body was found with the throat slashed and slumped beside her razed car along the Sherwood Forest main road in Portland on July 20 last year.

Denvalyn Minott, who was also arrested and charged in connection with the killing, pleaded guilty in the Home Circuit Court last September and was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

After his guilty plea, prosecutors divulged details of a witness statement Minott gave police investigators claiming that Everton McDonald offered him $3 million to kill Tonia McDonald.

Minott also admitted that he hired another man to carry out the crime and said he watched as the man stabbed the 32-year-old businesswoman repeatedly.

Anderson: Rocky Point plane wasn’t destined for Jamaica

Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson has said the plane that crash-landed in Rocky Point, Clarendon, two weekends ago was not destined for Jamaica.

The 12-seater plane landed on the beach on January 23, triggering much speculation as its occupants fled, leaving behind the empty aircraft.

The twin-engine airplane is deregistered and its ownership is domiciled in Mexico.

Yesterday, Anderson indicated that the incident was now the subject of a transnational investigation and that the identities of those flying the aircraft were now known.

He stated that there was no cargo on board.

15 J’cans among hundreds deported from US last week

HOUSTON (AP):

President Joe Biden’s administration has deported hundreds of immigrants in its early days despite his campaign pledge to stop removing most people in the US illegally at the beginning of his term.

US District Judge Drew Tipton last week granted a temporary restraining order sought by Texas that bars enforcement of a 100-day deportation moratorium that had gone into effect on January 22. Tipton said the Biden administration had violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act in issuing the moratorium and had not proven why a pause in deportations was necessary. The ruling, however, did not require the government to schedule them.

In recent days, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported immigrants to at least three countries, including 15 people to Jamaica last Thursday, and 269 people to Guatemala and Honduras on Friday. More deportation flights were scheduled yesterday.

ICE said Friday that it had deported people to Jamaica and that it was in compliance with last week’s court order.

It is unclear what offences those deported had committed.