Omar Collymore, co-convicts to be sentenced for wife's murder on July 24

Justice Leighton Pusey is to decide on July 24 the fate of Omar Collymore and the three men who assisted him in the contract-style killing of his wife and her taxi driver six years ago.

The date was scheduled this morning after defence lawyers completed their plea-in-mitigation submissions, which started last Tuesday in the Home Circuit Court.

Simone Campbell-Collymore and Winston Walters were killed when men rode up on motorbikes and sprayed them with bullets as they waited to be let inside the woman's Forest Ridge apartment complex in Red Hills, St Andrew on January 2, 2018.

The 32-year-old mother of two was shot 19 times, while the taxi driver, 36, was shot five times.

Collymore, 41, a United States businessman, contract killer Michael Adams, 33, a tailor and salesman, and Dwayne Pink, 34, a construction worker, were found guilty of the murders of both victims as well as conspiracy to murder on May 15, following a four-month long trial.

A fourth defendant, Shaquilla Edwards, 27, a marketer, was however only convicted of murder conspiracy.

Acting Senior Director of Public Prosecutions, Andrea Martin Swaby, during her submission last Tuesday, asked that both Collymore and Adams be sentenced to life in prison for each of the murders, with the men serving 46 1/2 years in prison before parole eligibility in respect to Campbell-Collymore's murder and 48 1/2 years for Walters' murder.

She, however, recommended a slightly lower sentence for Pink based on the minimal role he played in the murder plot.

Martin Swaby asked also that he be sentenced to life in prison for both murders but that he serves 41 1/2 years before being eligible for parole for Campbell-Collymore's murder and 43 1/2 for the other murder.

Pertaining to Edwards, she recommended 6 1/2 years, but the judge told her she could only propose 3 1/2 years as the maximum sentence is 10 years and the convict has already served 6 1/2 years in prison.

Martin Swaby, in asking for the lengthy sentences, had asked the judge to treat the case as one that falls within the category of cases described as the "worst of the worst", and proposed a starting point of 45 years for Collymore and Adams, and 40 years for Pink.

This morning, Collymore's lawyer Diane Jobson and Pink's lawyer, Earnest Davis, both asked the judge not to treat the case as the worst of the worst and to use the minimum starting point of 15 years.

Jobson also argued that her client should be given a higher starting point than the shooter Dwayne Wade who was given a 35-year sentence for each of the murders and eight years for the gun he used in the killings.

Blackwood got a reduction in his sentence to 20 years before being eligible for parole after agreeing to become a prosecution witness.

Jobson argued that Blackwood's guilty plea was a tactic but the judge essentially told her that early guilty plea is a welcome tactic that benefits all.

She also asked the judge to accept as a mitigating factor that her client was a devoted father who made sacrifices for his family when he left the US and moved to Jamaica and that his wife's death had also caused him to suffer.

Davis for his part asked the judge to consider that his client was not the instigator or triggerman and that he was not present at the murder scene.

He also asked the judge to consider his client's medical condition, which the court is to verify with the institution where he was admitted.

The other two convict's lawyer made their submission last week.

Adams' lawyer Sanjay Smith had also asked the court to depart from the Crown's starting point and instead begin at 30 and 35 years while begging for mercy for his client.

He told the judge to “extend a heavy hand in mercy and a light hand in sentence.” 

The judge was also asked to consider Adams' level of maturity, his age at the time the offence was committed and his "non-fairytale" upbringing.

Attorney-at-law Gnoj McDonald asked the court to treat her client as an individual and to impose a sentence that would not be crushing.

She further asked the judge to bear in mind his cooperation with the investigation, his youth, his history of childhood trauma, and the fact that he has no prior convictions. 

Additionally, McDonald begged the judge to treat Edwards' withdrawal from the plot to kill Simone and his acknowledgement of the impact on the victims' family as an expression of show remorse. 

She suggested a starting point from five to six years, before eligibility for parole.

The trial of the four men heard that Collymore 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.

- Tanesha Mundle

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