‘This can’t bring back mi pickney’ - Tonia McDonald’s family react to ‘Beachy Stout’ guilty verdict

Sixty-four minutes was all it took for the jury pool in the Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald and Oscar Barnes murder trial to arrive at a unanimous guilty verdict yesterday in the Home Circuit Court.

They were retired by trial Judge Chester Stamp at 2:19 p.m. to commence deliberations and by 3:23 p.m., they were back, ready for the jury foreman to deliver the conclusion.

McDonald, 69, and Barnes, 39, were found guilty of murder and conspiracy to murder McDonald’s second wife, 32-year-old Tonia McDonald. Her sister, Nicole Hamilton-Linton, stormed out the courtroom after hearing the verdict. She told THE STAR that she was feeling overjoyed at the guilty verdict because the family has been waiting for a long time.

“I’m happy but it won’t bring my sister back. I’m happy that the culprits will be serving time and I hope it’s time they will reflect and know that they have taken out a human being and she was loved by her family. She was the darling of the family,” Hamilton-Linton said.

Tonia’s mother, Sonia Davis-Hamilton, who had testified during the six-month long trial, said her children and grandchildren have been receiving counselling.

“This has been very hard for us. My daughter here (Nicole) almost faint after she heard the verdict in the courthouse just now. We have to be fanning her. Normally she wouldn’t be the one crying, I would be crying all the time and she would be there for me,” Davis-Hamilton said. But the verdict brought little ease.

“Because this can’t bring back mi pickney! Them wicked people deh … this can’t bring back mi pickney,” she said.

There was no emotion from the convicted men in the prisoners’ dock on hearing their fate. Earl Hamilton, senior attorney for McDonald’s legal team, told journalists that they have accepted the unexpected verdict. Hamilton opined that it was an “uphill task” as people were hearing about the case even before it made it to trial.

The convicted men were remanded in custody until May 16 for sentencing.