Witness: Collymore wanted wife accused of hiring her own killers

A claim has been made that Omar Collymore approached one of his wife’s killers in jail and told him to tell the court that it was his wife who had ordered a hit on him, but it backfired, resulting in her death.

The shocking revelation was made by a former gangster, Wade Blackwood, who in March 2021, pleaded guilty to the shooting deaths of 32-year-old businesswoman Simone Campbell-Collymore and taxi driver Winston Walter, 36.

The two were shot and killed outside the gate of the businesswoman’s Forest Ridge apartment in Red Hills, St Andrew, on January 2, 2018, by two men, who were captured on camera.

Blackwood, who is currently serving two life sentences and will be eligible for parole after 20 years, testified yesterday that Collymore tried to influence him to lie after he told him that he was going to plead guilty.

“Him tell me, me must plea like dat, meaning him a go tell me how me must plead.

“Him tell me say when we go court, me must tell the judge or the court say a him wife pay me fi kill him and it turn the next way,” Blackwood recalled.

Asked by the prosecutor what he meant, he answered: “That him wife pay me fi kill him and the deal never went right and me turn around her and kill her.”

“Was that how it go? “the prosecutor asked.

“No, Miss,” Blackwood said emphatically.

He further shared that he had never spoken to Campbell-Collymore.

Blackwood was initially charged with Collymore, Michael Adams, Dwayne Pink, and Shaquile Edwards for the double murder but pleaded guilty.

According to the murder-convict-turned-prosecution witness, Collymore had also approached him earlier and told him that he was still going to pay him for the murder.

Collymore reportedly promised him a truck to put in his father’s business.

Earlier in the trial, Blackwood, who was seen clearly on a video recording shooting into the front-passenger window of the taxi in which Campbell-Collymore was travelling, said that the man who forced him to do the killing and who was the second shooter, told him he was being paid $2 million.

FAMILY THREATENED

He identified the man only as Jim, the leader of the Brook Valley Unruly Gang, which he had been associating with since 15. However, he later shared that he was informed while in prison that the police had killed Jim.

According to Blackwood, a day before the actual murder, Jim came to him and told him that he would have to kill a woman to pay for his gun, which the police had taken from Blackwood’s brother.

Jim reportedly threatened that if Blackwood refused, he, or his mother, or another family member would be killed.

Blackwood told the court further that Jim told him that he would not be giving him any money from the $2 million.

The witness, however, testified that Collymore did not know about the situation with Jim when he promised to pay him.

Blackwood also testified that when Jim told him about the murder and gave him a glock firearm, Adams, Pink, “Skinny Man” and another man were present.

He told the court that Adams was the contract killer and that while they were in Brook Valley, Adams, after getting a call, told them that the man who ordered the hit wanted them to drive up to the house as the lady was about to leave.

Blackwood later testified that he found out that Collymore was the man who had ordered the hit after Adams pointed him out when they were in a holding area at the Supreme Court.

He said that that was his first time seeing Collymore and that he did not know before the incident that the target was his wife.

Continuing to share his details about the first attempt, he said Adams instructed Jim to wait, while he drove off with Pink and the other unknown person.

Shortly after Blackwood left, Jim got a call and drove out, he testified. He, on the other hand, rode off with Skinny Man on a bike.

The murder convict said that they then stopped at a gas station at the foot of Red Hills when Adams called Skinny Man’s phone and reported that the lady was coming down the hill in a white car and that he, Adams, was behind her.

Blackwood said that when the lady drove past the gas station towards Price Rite (supermarket), he and Skinny Man rode behind her.

He said that when she got to a point as if she was about to turn, they rode up to her close on the right side, and after seeing her and a male driver in the car. He called off the hit.

“I was imagining, say, if a my mother or sister,” he said.

According to him, they returned to Brook Valley, where they saw the men.

But he said that when he told Jim that he had not done it, he became “ignorant” and threatened him again while Adams pointed out that if they didn’t kill the woman that day, they wouldn’t get the money.

He said both men started cursing.

However, Blackwood said that the following day, he and Jim, who were travelling on two separate bikes, carried out the shooting.

During the attack, he said Jim took the woman’s bag so that the incident would look like a robbery.

According to Blackwood, before they left to do the hit, the man who contracted the hit contacted Adams and told him to come to town as the lady would soon leave.

The court further heard that Blackwood and Skinny Man, in the meantime, had travelled up to the foot of Red Hills and was awaiting Campbell-Collymore.

Meanwhile, Blackwood, who said that he had felt badly about the murder, testified that when he first saw Collymore, he asked him why he gave Adams the contract to kill the lady and he gave him a “face like him a say, ‘don’t ask me dat’”.

Blackwood will continue his testimony today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com