Collymore branded ‘stranger to truth’

Omar Collymore, who is accused of masterminding the daring day-light murder of his wife, was yesterday branded a “stranger to truth” as the prosecutor ripped into his evidence, highlighting several apparent inconsistencies and contradictions.

“You are making it up as you go along,” prosecutor Andrea Martin Swaby told the 41-year-old Barbados-born United States citizen several times throughout her cross-examination in the Home Circuit Court.

Collymore is being tried for two counts of murder and murder conspiracy along with alleged contract killer Michael Adams and alleged accomplices Dwayne Pink and Shaquilla Edwards in connection with the January 2, 2018, gun murder of Simone Campbell-Collymore and her taxi driver, Winston Walters. The two were shot multiple times outside the couple’s apartment complex in Red Hills, St Andrew, by two men on two motorbikes.

The father of two, who is accused of killing his wife over insurance, admitted yesterday that he would have been entitled to $76 million if his wife died.

During the cross examination, Collymore appeared very rattled, especially when he was asked certain questions, and shifted between hunching over and leaning on the witness box as he faced day two of grilling from the prosecutor.

While holding firm to aspects of his evidence, the defendant fumbled several times in other instances during his cross-examination.

On Monday, when asked about a message he had sent to Adams on December 31, 2017, saying, “The same silver Benz, going to church in Duhaney Park,” he sought to explain that he sent that message because Adams was to meet his wife to return damaged phones.

Collymore has maintained that he was in constant communication with Adams about business as he had given him several phones to sell and several of them had issues.

However, yesterday, when Martin Swaby questioned him about the message, he gave a different explanation, saying that Adams was to pick up goods from Campbell-Collymore, which he had given his wife to give Adams.

“Yesterday you said nothing about him going to meet her to collect goods,” Martin Swaby said after suggesting that Collymore was fabricating evidence.

Collymore was also asked whether he knew the location of the breakfast party that his wife had attended a day before she was killed and said he wasn’t aware. However, at the same time, he acknowledged that she had sent him the location of the party in a text message.

Among the evident contradictions was Collymore’s response to a question about the total sum of money he had collected from Adams for phones – which he said was about $800,000 – for devices given to him over the Christmas period.

Adams, who was listening to Collymore intently, burst into laughter when Collymore mentioned the funds.

According to Collymore, he had collected money in various sums – $152,000, $150,000, and $300,000 – from Adams.

However, on Tuesday, when asked the value of the goods he had given to Adams, he said $50,000-$60,000.

Martin Swaby also highlighted the apparent inconsistencies in Collymore’s testimony.

The defendant testified on Tuesday that the contractor who was building an apartment complex for him and his wife had threatened her and that he had even told the police about it.

However, when he was asked if he had put that in his first two statements, he said he would need to look.

“Where you see the name ‘Barry’, just shout it out,” the prosecutor instructed Collymore, eliciting laughter from the court.

But Collymore, after looking, admitted that he did not find any reference to those threats.

According to Swaby, no mention was made of any arguments or threats made by the contractor in any of the statements. In fact, she said Collymore indicated that he did not know of any reason why someone would want to kill his wife.

He was asked why, six years later, he now wants to mention the threats and if it would not have been important for him to tell the police. Collymore said it was a lapse in memory.

Apparent contradictions and inconsistencies aside, Collymore was strident in claiming that the multiple daily calls made to Adams between December 16 and January 2, late at night and in the wee hours of the morning, were about the business.

He also refused to budge from his declaration that he did not know the confessed shooter, Wade Blackwood.

Collymore denied telling Blackwood to tell the court that it was his wife who had hired him to kill Collymore and that it backfired, or that he promised Blackwood a truck.

“I never spoke to that man, period. I never spoke to that murderer,” he said.

“Me and that murderer never have any conversation, period,” Collymore repeated when pressed further.

Collymore claimed he was always separated from Blackwood and the other men when they went to court. However, he later admitted that he and Blackwood had been in the same cell at the Horizon Remand Centre.

“I was silent, completely. I was depressed. I was sad. Who you want me to talk to?” he asked, hissing his teeth.

Asked by the prosecutor if he had hissed his teeth, he asked “At who?” to which she replied, “Very well”.

The trial will continue today with Collymore again facing the hot seat.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com