Omar Collymore and wife Simone Campbell-Collymore
By Racquel Porter
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Andrea Martin-Swaby on Wednesday did her best to cut through murder accused Omar Collymore's defence that he did not contract his co-accused, Michael 'Crayboss' Adams, to kill his wife for her multimillion life insurance policies.
On Tuesday, Mr. Collymore told the court that Mr. Adams was someone with whom he did business.
Mr. Collymore said he gave Mr. Adams phones and phone accessories to sell for the company.
Mr. Collymore and three co-accused are on trial for the 2018 murder of taxi operator Winston Walters and Simone Campbell-Collymore outside her Forest Ridge apartment in Red Hills, St. Andrew.
Picking up where she left off Tuesday afternoon, Mrs Martin-Swaby cornered Mr. Collymore with questions about the numerous phone calls between him and Mr. Adams in the wee hours of the morning.
He was adamant that he never discussed any murder conspiracy with Mr. Adams during any of these conversations.
Phone data records showed that Mr. Collymore called his wife for minutes, half-hour before she was murdered, and immediately afterwards, he made another minute-long call to Mr. Adams.
Mr. Collymore, after making that one-minute call, again phoned Mr. Adams three minutes later.
Mr. Collymore also attempted to contact Mr. Adams again, eleven minutes after his wife was shot and killed.
On Tuesday, Mr. Collymore agreed that he sent a text message to Mr. Adams on December 31, telling him to hurry up and that his wife was in a Mercedes Benz going to church in Duhaney Park.
The data showed that Mr. Adams replied, stating that regarding the thing he borrowed the day before, the owner wanted it to cook their food.
In his explanation, Mr. Collymore claimed he sent the message because his wife was to collect some damaged phones from Adams.
But When Mrs. Martin-Swaby grilled him about the context of the text message Mr. Adams sent him, he said he may have been referring to money.
The prosecutor, pressing further, asked him about another text he sent Adams instructing him to catch "ST" at the foot of the hill.
Explaining what the message meant, Mr. Collymore said he and Mr. Adams were to meet at the location.
But that was when the prosecutor reminded Mr. Collymore that on Tuesday he said Mr. Adams was to meet with his wife to return broken items.
Mrs. Martin-Swaby noted, "Today you are saying he was to collect goods."
She told him that he is a stranger to the truth and that he was making it up as he went along.
The prosecutor also cross-examined Mr. Collymore about the contractor who he claimed had threatened his wife.
Mr. Collymore testified on Wednesday that his wife told him that the contractor, who was building their apartment complex, had threatened her, and they had several conversations about it.
But he later agreed with the prosecutor that he never mentioned the contractor or his threats in the first statement to the police.
The prosecutor further highlighted that he also did not mention the man in the second statement; instead he had said that he did not know of any reason why someone would want to kill his wife.
Mrs.Martin-Swaby said, "But six years later you are coming to say Barry threatened Simone."
Mr. Collymore, however, said it was a lapse in memory when asked if that would not have been important information to share with the police.
Dewayne Pink and Shaquille Edwards are also on trial for the double murder.
$3 million investment
In the meantime, Omar Collymore on Wednesday morning disclosed that he invested $3 million in an ice-cream business for his ex-lover, while admitting that he was told by his wife, two months before her death, that their businesses were deep in debt.
At the same time, he admitted that he would have collected about $76 million from his wife's two insurance policies in the event of her death.
Earlier in the trial, the court heard Mrs. Campbell-Collymore, in a voice message dated October 2017, discussing the company's financial challenges.
But it was when Mr. Collymore was questioned about financial assistance given to his lover, a gym trainer, that he divulged that he had given her $3 million to invest in her company over time.
The woman, who previously testified that she ended their three-year affair two months before Mr. Collymore's wife was killed, said she started the ice-cream business with Mr. Collymore and his friend, but that both men later pulled out before the business opened.
She also denied benefitting financially from the relationship, but admitted that Mr. Collymore had been paying her rent and that he had taken her on overseas trips, including to Miami, where they stayed at the couple's house.
But when pressed about how much Collymore had invested in her business, the witness maintained that she could not recall the amount, nor could she recall how much she placed in the business or what she spent to buy equipment or pay the rent.
She said the business, which started in 2016, was wound up in June 2018, but insisted she could not recall how much was invested in the account.
comments powered by Disqus
.png)
All feeds
