Collymore labelled ‘centrepiece’ of wife’s murder

Omar Collymore was yesterday painted by the prosecution as a cold-hearted man who was struggling for money and, as a result, over several days, engineered the horrific murder of his wife so that he could benefit from her $101-million insurance policy.

Lead prosecutor Andrea Martin Swaby, in a fiery closing address, said the 41-year-old Barbados-born United States citizen and businessman was a drowning man who was pulling at straws.

“What you engineered, orchestrated and facilitated in this little third-world country… the police will not let you get away with it in Jamaica,” she said while addressing the seven-member jury.

While labelling Collymore the “centrepiece” of his wife’s murder, Martin Swaby questioned, “Who boards a plan on the day of his wife’s funeral?”

“And then he had the gall,” she said while spelling out the word (gall), “to say he didn’t know”.

“Even when people break up you know the day of your ex-wife’s funeral, especially if you have children.”

Collymore is being tried for two counts of murder and murder conspiracy along with alleged contract killer Michael Adams and alleged accomplices Dwayne Pink and Shaquilla Edwards in connection with the January 2, 2018, gun murder of Campbell-Collymore and taxi driver, Winston Walters.

The two were shot multiple times outside the couple’s apartment complex in Red Hills, St Andrew, by two men on two motorbikes.

The father of two, who is accused of killing his wife over insurance, has admitted that he would have been entitled to $76 million in the event of his wife’s death.

However, during the testimony, he insisted that he did not know the details of the $80-million policy and that he would have advised his wife against leaving him 70 per cent.

But Martin Swaby described his pronouncement as “disgraceful”.

“This was not a run-a-the-mill insurance, it was massive, and it was identical to his,” she said.

Recalling that Campbell-Collymore’s mother had testified that her daughter had told her about the police, Martin Swaby, said, “Do you for one minute think that Simone never discussed the details with Mr Collymore?”

Likewise, she said the insurance agent would have also discussed the policy with Collymore.

“Do you think he is being truthful when he says he knows nothing?” she asked.

Martin Swaby submitted that that could not have been the case when Collymore signed the policy in six different places and had even travelled to the US to get medical records to satisfy the application process.

The court heard that the couple had taken out identical $80-million life insurance policies in July 2017 and that before that Campbell-Collymore had a $21-million life insurance policy of which her husband was the sole beneficiary.

Making her case that Collymore was broke, Martin Swaby said that, based on the evidence, after he broke up with his ex-girlfriend in October 2017, he called her in December asking her to return the monies he had invested in her ice-cream company and, based on his admission, it was about $3 million.

But the prosecutor said when he was told that would not be possible, he went to his wife asking for money.

And from the voice messages of the couple’s conversations, Martin Swaby said the message was clear that Collymore was penniless and that their companies were experiencing financial losses.

Living out of his van

In one of the messages, Collymore shared that he was living out of his van and needed money.

However, Swaby said while Collymore was saying to his wife that he would not be begging on his knees for money, he was also saying that it’s not like he’s running her down to kill her.

“Who says that to his wife?” she asked, especially on the same day his ex-girlfriend told him that she could not give him back the money he had invested.

Answering her own question, Martin Swaby said, “A murderer.”

“Omar Collymore, orchestrated the murder of his wife and thought he could slip away,” she said, quoting from Proverbs 28:1 “ The wicked flee when no one pursues.”

She also submitted that Collymore was never moved by his wife’s death and that, while her relatives were devastated and shocked by her murder, he appeared normal. This, she said, was the observation of a female police witness shortly after the murder.

Martin Swaby also told the jury that the murder was one of common design where each party knowingly participated in the act and is equally guilty, regardless of their role.

She submitted that the common design is evidence-based on the men’s pattern of communication and the role they each played.

She noted the admission by Edwards in his caution statement that he knew of the plot but that, after trailing the Campbell-Collymore for a few days, he had pulled out of the plan.

Martin Swaby however argued that there is no evidence to support Edwards’ withdrawal from the plot as he had been communicating with the men right up to the woman’s murder and after, although he was not on the murder scene.

The prosecutor will continue her address today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com