Omar Collymore is to be sentenced today for the murder of his wife Simone Campbell-Collymore and her taxi driver.
By Racquel Porter
Omar Collymore, the businessman who was convicted in May for the 2018 murder of his wife Simone and her taxi driver Winston Walters will today know how much time he will be spending behind bars.
His co-convicts Michael Adams, Dwayne Pink and Shaquilla Edwards will know their fate as well.
The long-awaited trial, which spanned more than four months, began with the empanelling of a seven-member jury on February 12, in the Home Circuit Court.
During the trial, the prosecution told jurors that Collymore hired Adams to facilitate the murder of his wife and that Edwards and Pink allegedly played a role in surveilling the businesswoman's movements before her death.
The prosecution's witnesses included Simone's parents, Karen and Wayne Campbell.
During her testimony, Mrs. Campbell told the court that her son-in-law was one of the beneficiaries of his wife's $120 million life insurance policy.
The couple's two children were the other beneficiaries.
On the witness stand, Mr. Campbell tearfully recalled the day he was told about his daughter's murder.
He recounted how he rushed to the murder scene, then to the funeral home, where he saw his daughter's body on a stretcher.
He also recalled being told three months before Simone's death - while he and his wife were away on vacation - about Collymore's threat that he would watch the family crumble.
On February 28, convicted killer Wade Blackwood took the stand.
He was one of the shooters.
Blackwood maintained that alleged leader of the Unruly Gang, Jim, forced him to carry out the double murder as payment for a gun that the police had taken from his brother.
Jim and Blackwood were captured on CCTV footage spraying bullets into the taxi with Mrs. Campbell-Collymore aboard.
Blackwood also said Jim told him that he was offered $2 million to carry out the hit.
He also detailed the role the convicts played in the hit.
But the defence, during cross-examination, disputed Blackwood's testimony.
In March, a detective sergeant, who was the subofficer in charge at the Kingston Central Police Station in 2018, testified that Adams confessed that Collymore was responsible for organising his wife's murder but wanted him to take the fall.
During cross-examination Adams' attorney, Sanjay Smith, suggested that his client never made those utterances, but the witness maintained that he did.
Phone data evidence presented in court showed that there was continuous communication between Collymore and Adams in the days leading up to Simone's murder.
In May, Collymore in a sworn statement said he and Adams spoke about business, girls and not murder. He also said he had no reason to kill his wife.
Phone data records showed that Collymore sent a message to Adams on December 31, 2017, saying, "The same silver Benz, going to church in Duhaney Park." He sought to explain that he sent that message because Adams was to meet his wife to return damaged phones.
Collymore agreed that he was in constant communication with Adams about business as he had given him several phones to sell and several of them had issues.
The following day when prosecutor Andrea Martin Swaby questioned him about the message, he gave a different explanation, saying that Adams was to pick up goods from Mrs. Campbell-Collymore, which he had given his wife to give Adams.
On May 15, after two hours of deliberation, Collymore was found guilty of two counts of murder and conspiracy to murder.
Adams and Pink were found guilty of murder and conspiracy, while Edwards was only found guilty of conspiracy.
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