Court rules men implicated in Campbell-Collymore’s killing to remain on trial

TWO MEN implicated in the brazen daylight contract killing of businesswoman Simone Campbell-Collymore are to remain on trial after Justice Leighton Pusey ruled that they too have a case to answer.

Dwayne Pink and Shaquilla Edwards are charged along with the alleged mastermind, businessman Omar Collymore; and alleged contract killer, Michael Adams, with two counts of murder each and conspiracy to murder.

Edwards in his caution statement claimed he did not know the full details of the murder plot, including that the target was the wife of the man who had allegedly ordered the hit. He also claimed that he had pulled out of the enterprise before the murder occurred.

However, the judge in handing down the ruling yesterday said the evidence presented so far suggested that he was aware of the conspiracy.

Justice Pusey’s ruling follows a similar decision last Thursday that Collymore and Adams both have a case to answer.

Defence lawyers representing the men had made no-case submissions arguing that the Crown had not presented sufficient evidence to prove its case against their clients.

The men were charged in connection with the killings of the 32-year-old businesswoman and her taxi driver, Winston ‘Corey’ Walters, on January 2, 2018.

The victims were killed when men rode up on motorbikes and sprayed them with bullets as they waited to be let inside Campbell-Collymore’s Forest Ridge apartment complex in Red Hills, St Andrew.

PRICE TAG OF $2M

The trial has so far heard that Collymore, a US citizen, 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.

One of the triggermen in Campbell-Collymore’s murder previously testified that he was told that the hit was for $2 million.

Wade Blackwood, a confessed member of the Unruly Gang, who is currently serving two life sentences for the murders, had disclosed that he got the price tag from the other shooter, ‘Jim’, the now-deceased alleged leader of the Unruly Gang, to which they all reportedly belonged.

Blackwood also testified that Adams was the contract killer and was the one who spoke with the man who had ordered the hit on the woman.

Among the evidence presented was that Collymore was the sole beneficiary on her $21-million life insurance and was allotted 70 per cent of her second life insurance policy worth $80 million.

The couple’s two children were the other beneficiaries of the second policy, with 15 per cent each.

Campbell-Collymore had finalised an $80-million life insurance policy less than three months before she was murdered, to add to the $21-million policy.

Collymore also took out a life insurance policy for $80 million, with his wife and children as beneficiaries.

Phone data evidence also showed that there was continuous communication between Collymore and the alleged contract killer in the days leading up to his wife’s murder, and in one of the texts sent two days before her death, he was urging the person “to hurry up” and to “do it this morning”.

The data also showed a pattern where Collymore would often call his wife before calling or attempting to make contact with the alleged contract killer, often within the space of one minute.

Specifically, phone data records showed that Collymore had called his wife for a minute, half an hour before she was murdered, and immediately after, he made another minute-long call to the man whom he allegedly contracted to have her killed.

The phone data records further revealed that Adams and one of the shooters, Jim, exchanged several calls on the day of the shooting.

Cell site data also placed Jim close to Simone’s apartment when the calls started.

The trial will continue today with Collymore presenting his case.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com