Witness confirms sale of $80m policy weeks before murder

Businesswoman Simone Campbell-Collymore had taken out an $80-million life insurance policy less than three months before she was murdered to add to a similar policy she had valued at $21 million.

A life insurance agent, now a branch manager, who had set up the policy, testified on Tuesday that both the businesswoman and her husband, Omar Collymore, had taken out life insurance in the same amounts and that they, along with their children, were the beneficiaries of each other’s policies.

Collymore, however, was the trustee for his children on his wife’s policy.

Explaining how she had taken out such a massive policy, the witness, who met the businesswoman through his wife years ago, said, “She was earning $8 million a year and based on her age, she was eligible for 10 times her annual earnings or even more.”

He said it was the same for her husband, who was her business partner.

Asked what would have happened in the event of Campbell-Collymore’s death, the witness said the money would have been paid out to her husband, even though the policy was freshly opened.

However, he said that to date, no money was paid out and the policy has been marked “death”, while Collymore’s policies were cancelled on January 18, 2018.

The 41-year-old Barbados-born businessman is being tried in the Home Circuit court 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.

The two 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, on January 2, 2018, at 3:50 p.m.

Collymore is accused of orchestrating the murder of his wife, reportedly to cash in on her multimillion-dollar life insurance payout.

According to the witness, who, along with his wife, shared a close relationship with Campbell-Collymore, in late 2017, he met briefly with the businesswoman to discuss her purchasing the policy before meeting with the couple in a longer meeting to discuss the policies.

The witness, who shared that it was hard for him to speak about his friend and client, told the court that a day before she was killed, he and his wife, as well as Campbell-Collymore’s sibling and her best friend, had been out partying and that they would often party together. However, he said Collymore did not accompany them to the party that day.

LARGE, BUT NOT FOR HIGH-INCOME EARNERS

Turning back to the policies, the branch manager said he completed Campbell-Collymore’s policy on October 25 and her husband’s later on November 28, as he had required additional information.

Collymore, who he said did not have any previous policies, took out two policies, one life insurance and a critical illness policy for $10 million. His wife, however, already had a critical illness policy in the same amount, the court heard.

Asked by the prosecutor how he would describe the life insurance policy of that amount, the witness said it was “not the typical policy” that is sold every day.

“It’s a large sum, but not for the person who earns a lot, and it was not for Collymore, because really and truly, they could have gotten more,” he said.

The court was further told that Campbell-Collymore’s monthly premium was $46,843.

The witness will continue to give evidence when the trial resumes today.

Meanwhile, earlier in the trial, defence lawyers for Edwards, and Pink sought to establish that their clients had been home and on the day she was murdered.

Edwards’ lawyer, Gnoj McDonald, questioned the data analyst about the cell site data linked to the phone attributed to her client between the early morning to 3:37 p.m. and was told that the cell site data showed that his phone was connected to the cell towers in Portmore St Catherine for that period.

He further agreed that the number attributed to Edwards was then picked up using different cell towers as it made its way into the Half-Way Tree area and returned to Portmore. The witness when quizzed further about the cell cite data linked to the phone attributed to Edwards on the same date, said later in the evening, the number was picked up by a cell site located in Lockhart Avenue in Kingston.

Edwards, in a caution statement to the police, reportedly said that he was involved in the plot but did not know the full details. He said he had pulled out before the woman was killed. However, before, he admitted to trailing her in her car, but said he did not know that she was the wife of the man who had ordered her killed.

Meanwhile, Pink’s lawyer, Ernest Smith, who also sought to establish that his client had remained at his home on the day of the killing, similarly grilled the witness about the cell cite data location. However, the witness told him he could not say for sure that his client had remained in his neighbourhood from mid-morning to the close afternoon as he could only speak to the location of the phone.

Attorney-at-law Diane Jobson and Sasha-Kay Shaw are representing Collymore.

Attorneys-at-law Patrick Peterkin is also representing Edwards and Adams is being represented by attorney C.J. Mitchell and Sanjay Smith.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com