Accused accomplice claims he never spoke to confessed shooter

Dubbing himself a businessman, Michael ‘Crayboss’ Adams, the man allegedly contracted to murder businesswoman Simone Campbell-Collymore, while distancing himself from confessed shooter Wade Blackwood, emphasised that his dealings with the other men, including Omar Collymore, were purely about business.

At the same time, the 33-year-old defendant of a Molynes Road address in St Andrew, said: “Me and Mr Blackwood never spoke. He not know anything about me. Me and Mr Blackwood not in any gang in the Brook Valley area because I cannot know someone for over a period of over 10 years and never speak and never associate, neither have their contact number, no nothing.

“Me and Blackwood never have any conversation,” Adams said further during his unsworn statement from the dock in the Home Circuit Court yesterday while adding that he had communicated with the other alleged shooter, ‘Jim’, an alleged gang leader, about his business.

He also denied that he had been given a contract by Collymore to kill his wife.

Adam’s testimony also corroborates many aspects of the one given by Collymore, the alleged mastermind, including that the communication between them was strictly about business in that Adams had taken goods from him to sell and that some of the calls were about goods that he was to return. His testimony also corroborated Collymore’s claim that the hoverboard he had been given by Collymore had battery problems and was not a down payment for the murder.

An investigator had testified that Adams told the police in a caution statement that Collymore had given him the hoverboard as part payment for the contract while Edwards, in his caution statement, told the police that he was present when Adams collected the device from Collymore.

Adams, during his unsworn testimony, also told the court that he did not know his co-defendants, Collymore, Dwayne Pink, and Shaquilla Edwards to be murderers.

“The communication between me and these gentlemen, we never spoke about any sort of killing or murder,” he said.

“We talk about girls, we talk about parties, we talk about a lot of things, social, nothing about killing,” Adams claimed.

He said Pink was also a businessman and that their association was as businessmen.

Further to that, he also claimed that he was the one communicating with Collymore on Edwards’ phone.

The men are each facing two counts of murder and conspiracy to murder in connection with the killing of the 32-year-old businesswoman and her taxi driver, Winston Walters, on January 2, 2018.

SPRAYED WITH BULLETS

The victims were killed when men rode up on motorbikes and sprayed them with bullets as they waited to be let inside Campbell-Collymore’s Forest Ridge apartment complex in Red Hills, St Andrew.

Collymore, 41, a US citizen, is accused of hiring Adams to arrange the murder of his wife while Edwards and Pink allegedly played a role in trailing the businesswoman’s movements before her death.

Blackwood, one of two triggermen, testified that he had been told that the hit was for $2 million.

The confessed gangster, who is currently serving two life sentences for the murders, disclosed that he ad got the price tag from the other shooter, ‘Jim’, the now-deceased alleged leader of the Unruly Gang.

Blackwood also testified that Adams was the contract killer and was the one who spoke with the man who had ordered the hit.

Adams, throughout his testimony, maintained that he was up and down doing his business and that he also travelled downtown.

Addressing the prosecution’s evidence that Collymore sent him a message on December 31, 2017, saying, “Same silver blue Benz, going to church in Duhaney Park,” Adams, like Collymore, explained that the message was sent because he was to return some damaged phones.

Collymore, however, sought to change his story later in his cross-examination, claiming that he had given his wife goods to give to Adams.

Continuing, Adams also gave a similar account of what was meant by a message that he had sent to Collymore saying, ‘the thing that they borrowed, the person wanted it back to cook’, claiming that the message was about money Adams had borrowed.

“On December [31], which is New Year’s Eve, that is the day where everybody is excited to know that it is the end of the year, everybody is going be partying, drinking all above, all around, even on that same day, I was in contact with Mr Collymore to return some good and to get some good for him on that very same day,, and I called him and told him that I will be returning back some goods, and he text me and said that the silver blue Benz, … that his wife would be travelling in that vehicle so I could drop it off .

“I even told him that the more that I borrowed, the person wanted it back, okay. I did want to go into his money to give the person, so I told him what I had to told him so he would give me back the money to give back the person.”

Adams denied the prosecution’s claim that he had been trailing the woman on the day of the killing.

“On January 2, I was conducting my business. I even in downtown purchasing goods, talking with people, conducting with people,” he said.

According to him, the only role he played on the day of the murder was to take a picture of the licence plates of two cars parked in a lane in downtown Kingston and sent it to Jim, but he did not know what were his intention or plans.

Explaining the more than 300 calls between himself and Collymore in the days leading up to the murder, Adams said the “back and forth” communication between them was a result of them not being able to reach each other on many occasions, hence so many calls and attempted calls between them.

To explain the late night and early morning call, Adams said he was up talking to his family many early mornings, and “Collymore would jump up and see him online and give him a shout”.

“We talk about business, we talk about life, we talk about girls we talk about parties ‘cause we are basically humans, you understand. I know he is married, but girls are girls and men will always be men. Sometimes we cheat, sometimes we don’t, and those were what the calls were for,” Adams said.

The trial will continue today, with a witness for Adams taking the stand.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com