‘I wanted to tell her about murder plot’, convicted contract killer testifies

The convicted contract killer in the murder of Portland businesswoman Tonia McDonald today testified that he wanted to tell her about the plot to kill her but he found it hard to do so.

According to him, it was easier to make love to her than to tell her about the murder plot.

The married witness, Denvalyn Minott, otherwise called 'Bubbla', who previously testified that he had a sexual relationship with the now-deceased, told the court he had daily conversations with the woman about where they would link up or "endz out" for their affair.

Minott claimed he and Tonia would often meet at the pier during her lunch period.

Pressed by defence attorney Christopher Townsend, Minott said, "I take her to my house nuff times and I try to tell her but it did not work out."

"After speaking to her every day a only one time you try to tell her that?" Townsend asked.

Minott, in answering, agreed with Townsend's suggestions that "the words couldn't come out."

Townsend then questioned Minott about his earlier testimony in which he testified that he and his alleged accomplice Oscar Barnes had travelled to Boston in Portland with Tonia to kill her under the guise that they were going to buy a gun that she wanted to use to avenge her father's death.

The lawyer asked the witness why he didn't use the opportunity to tell her about the murder plot after the mission was aborted that day and they were alone in the car.

"I didn't but I wanted to," he said.

Tonia's husband  Everton 'Beachy Stout' McDonald and his co-accused Oscar Barnes are currently on trial for the alleged murder of the 32-year-old businesswoman.

Minott, who is currently serving 19 years in prison for his role in the murder, testified that Beachy had contracted him in 2020 to kill Tonia for a fee of $3 million but that he sub-contracted the job to Barnes.

Under further cross-examination, the convicted murderer told the court that he had offered the entire $3 million to Barnes.

Asked how much would have been his cut, he said he did not know.

"So you tek a job to kill somebody who you were having a relationship with and you don't know how much you would get?" Townsend asked, to which Minott said "Yes."

"So you plan to kill the lady for no reason? Townsend asked.

"It was for money," Minott replied.

"But you were giving away your cut?" Townsend asked.

"A suh it affi guh, it couldn't be any other way, " Minott replied.

Asked to explain his response, he told the court that it would have been wrong for him to collect money to do something that he did not want to do.

He also accepted that it was equally wrong to have hired persons to kill Tonia and to make repeated attempts to murder her.

The witness previously testified that he had lured Tonia to her death and watched as Barnes stabbed her repeatedly.

The woman's partially burned body was found with her throat slashed in her car which had been set ablaze along a deserted road in Sherwood Forest in Portland on July 20, 2020.

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