Andre McDonald, on the left, appears in screengrab from the Law&Crime Network. His father, Everton McDonald appears in the center with his second wife, Tonia Hamilton-McDonald, on the right in a selfie.
A Texas man was recently sentenced for killing his wife. Now, that man’s father is set to be tried for murdering his first and second wives.
On Monday, Air Force Major Andre McDonald, 43, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after previously being convicted of manslaughter for admittedly killing his 29-year-old wife and later mutilating her body with fire and a claw hammer in a Bexar County field in March 2019.
On Tuesday, citing “sources,” San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT reported that McDonald’s father, Everton “Beachy Stout” McDonald, 68, is due to face legal proceedings on two separate spousal murder charges in the island nation of Jamaica, from which both he and his son hail.
The elder McDonald stands accused of murder and conspiracy to commit murder over the brutal death of his second wife, Tonia “Sassy” Hamilton-McDonald, 32, according to Loop Jamaica News.
A co-defendant in that case, Astor “Tiny” Barnes, 30, is set to be tried alongside Stout, the outlet reported. A third co-defendant, Denvalyn “Bubble” Minott, 56, pleaded guilty to murder in September 2020 and received a 19-year sentence, according to a previous Loop report.
Hamilton-McDonald, a businesswoman, was found with her throat slashed in July 2020 alongside the main road of Sherwood Forrest in Portland, Port Antonio, Jamaica, according to the Jamaica Observer. Her singed body was discovered next to a burnt-out Toyota Axio. Stout was charged with his second wife’s murder in August 2020.
Investigators used the occasion of Hamilton-McDonald’s murder to reopen an investigation into the years-ago killing of Stout’s first wife, 50-year-old Merlene McDonald, who was shot dead outside of her Boundbrook, Jamaica, home in May 2009, according to the Observer.
Stout, who was already in jail for murder charges on his second wife, was charged for his first wife’s death in February 2021.
“It was a cold case that was under investigation,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey said at a press conference in comments reported by Loop. “So if you get involved in contract killing…we are going to find you. It may take a while, but we will find you.”
In each instance, Andre McDonald’s father, a prominent businessman, is alleged to have paid other men to kill his wives.
In the 2009 shooting, Jamaican authorities claim Stout paid a former police detective to kill Merlene McDonald after their marriage fell apart and she left their shared home sometime in 2007.
For the second alleged murder-for-hire, Stout is alleged to have offered Minott $3 million to use a knife to kill Hamilton-McDonald. That method was to differentiate the slaying from the first murder – so as not to arouse suspicion, authorities said. Minott reportedly testified that he subcontracted out the crime to Barnes and stood watch while the deed was done, according to the Observer.
Stout is reportedly due in court on Jan. 25, 2024, for a plea and case management hearing over his first wife’s murder. He will be charged and tried alone for the murder of Merlene McDonald.
The trial for the murder of his second wife is set to begin on Sept. 18. Stout will be tried alongside Barnes.
Stout’s son was convicted of manslaughter earlier this month for the death and later gruesome mutilation of Andreen McDonald. The younger McDonald was originally charged with murder and tampering with evidence.
During the trial, Andre McDonald described the killing and grisly aftermath – telling jurors how he accidentally killed his wife by kicking her after she attacked him over an argument about financial improprieties and infidelity that led to him threatening a divorce. After she was dead, the defendant said, he wanted to get the corpse out of the house and then destroyed the body out of anger once he realized he would be blamed for the incident that would leave his child without a parent.
Jurors took him at his word, but the judge overseeing the case angrily upbraided him and assessed the maximum penalty.
“You burned her body, beat it with a hammer, and desecrated her corpse. After that it almost seems like the emotion of a serial killer or something,” San Antonio District Court Judge Frank Castro said. “You didn’t seem to care about the dead mother of your child. You just didn’t seem bothered by that.”
The younger McDonald was assessed two years of credit for time served. He will be eligible for parole in just over seven years.