Cruel to ‘Corey’ - Widow of taxi-operator killed in suspected hit on Campbell-Collymore angry and hurting

Jewel Walters, widow of Winston 'Corey' Walters, the taxi operator who was shot and killed along with businesswoman Simone Campbell-Collymore in Red Hills, St Andrew, last month, is a broken woman.

Weeks after the gun attack that ended her husband's life, Jewel still spends her evenings scrolling through photos of him on her phone as their three boys cling to her shoulders, remembering the fun road trips they took with their father.

Walters, 36, and Campbell-Collymore were peppered with bullets by thugs who pounced on his blue Toyota Axio motor car, firing relentlessly as they made sure their targets were dead.

Campbell-Collymore's husband, Omar, and two other men have been charged with the murders.

Last Friday, as Jewel spoke to The Sunday Gleaner, Collymore and one of the accused appeared in court and were remanded. They are scheduled to return to court on February 26.

But the arrest of the men believed to have killed her husband has done nothing to diminish the anger and hurt felt by Jewel.

SENSELESS KILLING

"I am very angry; angry at the fact that he had to lose his life like that. He lost his life without even an idea as to why he was being killed," sobbed Jewel as she spoke with our news team at their rural St Andrew house last week.

"If somebody had said that he was in a car accident, or he was sick, it would really hurt, but to know that you are out there and your life is taken away and you don't even know why ... it makes me angry," added Jewel, as she declared that life has not been the same since her husband was killed.

Walters was buried two Saturdays ago, and Jewel lost consciousness at the funeral.

Now their 11-year-old son, who is to sit the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) this year, has fallen significantly behind at school, while their six- and five-year-old boys shake with anxiety whenever their mother leaves them.

"It is not easy to watch the person who you spend all of your life with go down into the ground," said Jewel, a teacher.

She told our news team that her husband moved hesitantly around the house before leaving out on the morning of his death.

FAMILY-ORIENTED MAN

Pushed by his relentless desire to ensure his family's well-being, she said, Walters reluctantly left the house, but only after asking her to call his mother-in-law and urge her to be safe in the volatile east Kingston community that she lived.

"He didn't know that he was walking into his own death that day," Jewel murmured with tears forming a puddle in her eyes as her youngest son snuggled under her arm.

"Corey was very determined, family-oriented, a hard-working person. Anything he put his mind to, he must get it done. He was very supportive and there for us," she said.

According to Jewel, her husband, who loved travelling across Jamaica and the United States on vacations with his family, was her strength when she became pessimistic.

"I cannot understand how another human being can take another person's life; and when I hear how many persons are behind this and how heartless it was ... it really makes me angry.

"Yes, you have the shooters who actually went and pulled the trigger, but the masterminds who actually planned all of this is even worse," said Jewel.

"It takes a wicked and evil person to live with someone so long and just take their life like that, leaving behind children," added Jewel.

Since Walter's death, some of his passengers have taken to social media speaking about his reliable and cheerful character.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com