Accused killer characterised as ‘peaceful, jovial person’

A FORMER girlfriend of Oscar Barnes’ said reports that he was the man behind the killing of Portland businesswoman, Tonia McDonald, was the last news she expected to hear as she did not know him to be a killer.

“I was very surprised as I don’t know him as that type of person, so to hear all that now, it was just kind of crazy for me because I never expected that I would have read anything as such, knowing the type of person that he was,” said the business manager and mother of Barnes’son as she gave character evidence on his behalf.

The 33-year-old fisherman, from St Mary, and Portland businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald are currently on trial in the Home Circuit Court for Tonia’s July 20, 2020, murder.

The woman’s partially burnt body was found along a deserted road in Sherwood Forrest in Portland. Her throat was also slashed and she had nine stab wounds.

The prosecution’s key witness, Denvalyn ‘Bubbla’ Minott, who is serving 19 years in prison for his role in Tonia’s murder, previously testified that Beachy Stout hired him to carry out the murder for $3 million but that he passed on the job to Barnes.

According to him, on the day of the murder, he watched as Barnes stabbed Tonia to death and set her car ablaze.

But the character witness, who said she knew Barnes for 14 years, in response to a question from his lawyer, Ernest Davis, agreed that him being charged in such a case was not in keeping with his character.

“I know him as a very peaceful and jovial person,” she said further while adding that she had never seen him angry or involved in fights or quarrels over the years.

The witness’ relationship with Barnes was scrutinised, however, by the prosecutor, who sought to establish that she did not know much about Barnes.

CIVIL COMMUNICATION

According to the witness, she had a two-year intimate relationship with Barnes, which ended around 2011.

She further explained that although the relationship ended, she would see and communicate with Barnes, who regularly visited his son and took things for him.

Additionally, she said she would see him twice weekly at a cook shop in Annotto Bay in St Mary.

But the prosecutor told her that she really could not say what Barnes was doing with his life from 2011 up to 2020, and the witness disagreed.

Fielding further questions from the prosecutor, the witness denied knowing that Barnes hung out in an alley in St Mary, that he went to Manchioneal to buy guns, and that he knew Bubbla.

The witness also denied knowing Barnes’ whereabouts on the day Tonia was killed.

Continuing, the prosecutor again suggested that the witness did not know much about Barnes’ life, but the witness did not budge on her stance that she knew him well.

“He is not going to tell me every move he makes. He is my son’s dad, and we speak regularly,” she said.

She was the only witness to take the stand as part of Barnes’ case.

Barnes on Tuesday declared his innocence during an unsworn statement from the dock in which he denied knowing McDonald and Minott. He also distanced himself from the murder and accused the lead investigator of lying when he said he had given the police a caution statement.

In that statement, Barnes is alleged to have told the police that he knew of Tonia’s murder and could have saved her life.

In the meantime, the trial was adjourned yesterday until February 19 and will resume with closing addresses from the prosecution and defence.