'I had no reason to kill my wife'

Barbados-born businessman Omar Collymore, who is on trial for reportedly masterminding the murder of his wife for her multimillion life insurance policies, insisted yesterday that he did not know the value of her policies and that he would have advised her against making him a 70 per cent beneficiary on the $80-million plan.

"That is something I would never have agreed to because we have two kids," he said emphatically while adding that he and his wife, Simone Campbell-Collymore, were entrepreneurs and that if anything should have happened to either of them it was the children who would need the financial cushioning.

The 41-year-old businessman is being tried on murder and conspiracy to murder charges for the double murder of his wife and her taxi driver, Winston ‘Corey’ Walters. The alleged contract killer, Michael Adams, and alleged accomplices, Shaquilla Edwards and Dwayne Pink, are also on trial on similar charges.

“I said I love my wife. I had no reason to kill my wife. I didn’t subcontract anyone to kill my wife, period,” Collymore said boldly while hunched over the witness box while giving sworn evidence in his defence in the Home Circuit Court.

The trial earlier heard that the businesswoman had taken out a $21-million life insurance policy in 2015, of which her husband was the sole beneficiary and, together with her husband in 2017, both set up $80-million policies. Both opted to leave 70 per cent to each other in their policies while 15 per cent was allotted to each of their two children.

Asked by his lead attorney, Diane Jobson, to respond directly to a suggestion that he had taken out the polices for the sole purpose of having his wife killed for the insurance money, Collymore said, “Not at all. I had nothing to do with the policies. I didn’t even know where they were.”

“I never even see the actual policy,” added Collymore, who maintained that he was never present when his wife took out the policies nor had he had any meetings with the insurance agent.

During the trial, the businesswoman’s father and sister had testified that Collymore, following a major fight with his wife over an extramarital affair, had threatened that he would ensure that the family crumbled, which the court heard was about three months before his wife’s murder.

Explaining for the first time what he had meant, Collymore, who claimed living with his wife's family was stressful and negatively affected his marriage, said, “When I said crumble I mean the whole bull$%^%.”

According to him, he was referring to the problems he had with his wife and her family, including him not being able to advise his wife without her seeking approval from her parent and feeling like he was walking on eggshells in their home.

Further in his evidence in chief, Collymore also testified that the contractors who were building an apartment complex for him and his wife had threatened her. He said their work relationship was not good and a man he identified as “Barry” would shortcut processes and materials. According to him, he and his wife had multiple conversations about the issue she was having with Barry and he had told the police about the threats.

The defendant also sought to distance himself from Pink and Edwards. He said he did not know Pink and had only met with Edwards once and that they probably had one conversation in which Edwards was asking about items that he sold in his company.

As for Adams, he said he was someone with whom who he did business as he would be given phones and phone accessories to sell for the company.

He was adamant that he never discussed any murder conspiracy with Adams during their numerous phone conversations.

When asked about one of the shooters, Wade Blackwood, he said he had never met that "murderer" and that they have never spoken.

Collymore was however grilled by prosecutor Andrea Martin Swaby about the 379 lines of communication he had with Adams from December 25 to January 2 compared to 138 lines of communication he had with his wife which included missed calls, phone calls and text messages.

However Collymore claimed the calls were strictly about business as he had given Adams several phones over the Christmas period and that many of them had to be returned for repairs.

Under cross-examination, Collymore said he was not surprised that there were no calls between his wife and Adams as, in their business, he dealt with the men and his wife dealt with the woman.

He was also asked about a message he had sent to Adams on December 31, saying his wife was in a Mercedes Benz and that she was going to church, but he claimed he sent the message because his wife was to collect some damaged phones from Adams.

The trial will continue today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com