'That girl was a coward', says Tonia McDonald's mom

The mother of slain businesswoman Tonia McDonald says there is no truth to claims her daughter wanted to buy a gun to avenge her father's death. 

Sonia Davis Hamilton challenged the argument in court on Wednesday on the grounds that Tonia was the "coward in the family".

The businesswoman was the wife of Portland businessman Everton 'Beachy Stout' McDonald. He and his co-defendant, Oscar Barnes, are on trial in the Home Circuit Court for her 2020 murder.

“She was the weakest one in the family. She would not associate herself with no gun. That girl was a coward,” Hamilton said. 

During cross-examination, one of Beachy’s lawyers, asked Davis Hamilton if she was aware that her daughter wanted to contract men to kill the person believed had murdered her father.

“I bet she didn’t tell you those things?" the lawyer said to the mother, who earlier told the court that she and her daughter had a very close relationship.

But Davis Hamilton while denying knowledge of those things said, “ I know that she is not that type of person.”

The widow, who broke down in tears while speaking about both her deceased daughter and husband, testified that her husband was shot and killed in November 2018.

The trial will continue today with another witness.

- Tanesha Mundle 

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