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Omar Collymore was a beneficiary of murdered wife's $120m life insurance

By Racquel Porter    
 
The parents of Simone Campbell Collymore, the St. Andrew businesswoman who was killed along with her taxi driver in January 2018, became emotional in court on Tuesday afternoon as they tried to recall details before and after their daughter's murder.
 
Mrs. Campbell Collymore's husband, Omar 'Best' Collymore and his three co-defendants, Michael Adams, Dewayne Pink, and Shaquille Edwards, are being tried before the Home Circuit Court for the contract-style killings.
 
The 32-year-old businesswoman and 36-year-old taxi operator were gunned down on Stanley Terrace in Red Hills, St. Andrew in January 2018. 
 
Mrs. Campbell Collymore's mother took the witness stand about midday.
 
Detailing moments leading up to the January 2, 2018 murder of her daughter, the woman told the Home Circuit Court that her daughter's husband, Omar, was one of the beneficiaries of his wife's $120 million life insurance policy.
 
The witness said she found the policy in the couple's office after her daughter's death, adding that the couple's two children were the other beneficiaries.
 
She also testified that a night before her daughter's murder, she had noticed a strange car idling on the road where her house was located.
 
At that time, she said, the couple had been living with her.
 
The witness told the court that she was coming home from watch night service with her mother-in-law minutes after 1:00 a.m., and while waiting outside her gate to be let in, she noticed the car. She said the strange car was at the end of the lane and flickered its lights indicating that it needed to pass her car. It then left.
 
But shortly after, she said the car returned and stopped by her neighbour's gate before driving closer to her car, seemingly to allow the occupants to look inside.
 
The witness recalled: "I turned down my phone and started to pray, cause it looked suspicious and I was like 'Jesus, Jesus.'"
 
But it was while detailing the moment her husband got a telephone call that his firstborn had been shot and killed that the witness became emotional.
 
Recalling the moment she found out her daughter had been shot, the witness said she was downstairs preparing a meal when her husband called her upstairs and told her that Simone had been shot.
 
She said she immediately contacted her daughter's husband, asking Mr. Collymore three to four times what had happened.
 
She recounted that he did not answer but someone else took the phone and identified themself as a police officer.
 
The emotional mother told the court that up to today, Mr. Collymore had not spoken to her about the murder.
 
When asked by the prosecution to recall when her daughter was buried, she said she did not remember.
 
Responding to the prosecution on whether Mr. Collymore attended the funeral, she informed the court that she and her husband made arrangements for their daughter's funeral.
 
She said when she asked Mr. Collymore if he wanted to be participate in the funeral service, he said "Okay".
 
The prosecutor asked her if Mr. Collymore played any role in the funeral service.
 
She replied "Nothing at all".
 
During cross examination, attorney for Omar Collymore, Diane Jobson asked the mother if she knew that her client had been shot four days prior to the funeral.
 
The witness replied that she had heard it on the news.
 
Simone Campbell Collymore and her taxi driver were ambushed by men on motorcycles. She was reportedly shot 21 times, and, along with her driver, died at the scene.
 
One of Mr. Collymore's co-accused, Wade Blackwood, who pleaded guilty to being one of the shooters in the incident, was sentenced on March 11, 2021. He was handed two life sentences on two counts of murder and eight and a half years for illegal possession of a firearm.
 
The sentences were set to run concurrently, and he will be eligible for parole after serving 35 years.
 


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