(Jamaica Gleaner) The contract killer who admitted his role in the gruesome murder of Tonia McDonald, wife of popular Portland businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald, is cooperating with prosecutors under a plea deal.
Denvalyn Minott, who pleaded guilty to murder and was given a 19-year prison sentence as part of the deal, has already provided a witness statement about the July killing, a sign that he will be called to give evidence during the trial.
Minott will become eligible for parole after serving 10 years.
“If you fail to carry out the terms you have agreed under this agreement, then I will impose the sentence I really ought to impose, which is longer,” Justice Vivene Harris warned on September 17 during his sentencing hearing.
The development comes as a fourth man, who is reportedly employed by the businessman, was arrested by police investigators probing the murder.
“There is evidence that he knew before and after about the plan [to kill Tonia],” a law-enforcement source revealed.
The fourth suspect was reportedly taken into custody on Friday by detectives assigned to the Major Investigation Division and transported to Kingston.
He is facing charges of accessory before and after the fact to murder, but it was unclear up to late yesterday if charges had been laid.
Everton McDonald, also called ‘Mr Mack’, 65, Minott and another Portland man, Asher Barnes, were arrested in August, two weeks after Tonia McDonald’s partially burnt body was found with the throat slashed inside her razed motor car in Sherwood Forest, also in the parish.
CAUTION STATEMENT
The businessman and Barnes have pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges. They are scheduled to appear before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Thursday when it is expected that the case will be transferred to the circuit court.
However, Minott, a fisherman and married father of four, gave a tearful confession to detectives after his arrest.
He alleged in a caution statement, dictated in the presence of a justice of the peace, that Everton McDonald offered him $3 million to kill his wife and gave him specific instructions how it should be done.
“He didn’t want Mrs McDonald to be shot, but [said] that she was to be stabbed up and her body burnt,” he told detectives.
Minott also described in details how he lured Tonia McDonald to a deserted section of the Sherwood Forest roadway and watched as the man he subcontracted stabbed her repeatedly.
“He said the yute grabbed her (Tonia) around the headrest [of the driver’s seat of her car] 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 last month, citing the caution statement.
Minott, apparently racked with guilt, broke down in tears as he spoke to detectives.
“Miss Mack trust me too much. She believe in a me, a me mek she go up deh,” he said in the caution statement.
After his detailed confession, law-enforcement sources revealed that Minott and his attorneys approached the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to negotiate a deal under the Criminal Justice (Plea and Negotiations Agreement) Act in exchange for cooperating with investigators.
Under the legislation, the director of public prosecutions is empowered to enter into plea negotiations with an accused person “anytime before judgment” for the purpose of reaching an agreement.
At the end of the negotiations, both sides agreed on a sentence range, which was presented to the court on September 16 when Minott pleaded guilty.
