Beachy Stout turned suicidal after ordering wife’s murder, court told

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard startling allegations that well-known Portland businessman Everton McDonald had expressed regret after the murder of his first wife and wished he could bring her back and retrieve the money he had allegedly paid a detective to orchestrate the killing.

“Mi wish mi could a collect mi money from […] and get back mi wife. Mi sorry mi kill har,” one of the witnesses recalled being told by the accused six years after the murder of his wife, Merlene.

McDonald, at that time, was reportedly complaining about his second wife, Tonia, who he claimed was “running up and down with all kinda gyal and bwoy” and was disgracing his name.

The witness, in his statement which was read in court, however, said he turned to the accused and said, “Mr Mac, a nuh you kill har. A gunman kill har.” McDonald reportedly responded by saying, “No, mi pay fi kill har because she did a guh leave, and mi caa afford fi anybody else get har.”

The court further heard that McDonald, on another occasion in 2017, again told the same witness that he regretted killing his wife.

McDonald’s wife, who the court heard had left the matrimonial home in 2007 after her marriage broke down, was killed on May 2, 2009, after she was pounced on by a gunman and shot after arriving home in Boundbrook, Portland.

As the allegations unfolded, the court heard that McDonald had suffered bouts of depression after his wife left him and had attempted to take his life on more than one occasion.

According to one witness, McDonald’s suicide attempts continued even after his wife’s murder.

The witness, in his statement, said that in 2017, he went to McDonald’s home to make a delivery and found him partially unconscious, locked in his car, with the window wound up and the engine running, with a water house attached to the muffler pumping carbon monoxide into the car.

According to the witness, he shook the accused until he revived, and he started crying, saying: “Me caa tek dis no more. Look wah mi life come to.”

The same witness, the court heard, on another occasion in 2017, was sent by the accused to purchase rope and Gramoxone, a weed killer, but he disobeyed and was scolded.

VISIT TO OBEAH MAN

Another witness, McDonald’s nephew, who had reportedly noticed McDonald’s depression spells after his marriage fell apart, said that he took his uncle to see his obeah man after he showed him a ladder perched under a tree and told him “separation harder to deal with dan death” and that he was going to hang himself.

That witness, who is now deceased, told police in his statement that his uncle told him that he was going to shoot his wife, but he told him that that was unnecessary.

As the allegations were read aloud in court on Wednesday, McDonald, who had appeared before Justice Vinette Graham-Allen via Zoom from the Horizon Remand Centre in Kingston, folded his arms throughout the proceedings as he sat and listened.

His lawyer, Matthew Hyatt, however, informed the court that he intended to make a bail application on March 22. The accused was remanded.

McDonald is also on a conspiracy to murder charge in connection with the August 2020 murder of his second wife, Tonia. That matter will also be mentioned on March 22.

Tonia’s partially burnt body was found with the throat slashed beside her razed car along the Sherwood Forest main road in Portland last July.

The businessman, along with Asca Barnes, was arrested and charged after they were taken into custody on August 5, 2020, during a series of coordinated operations by the Major Investigation Division.

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

Attorney Bert Samuels is also representing Beachy Stout.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com