Businessman accused of wife’s murder was a beneficiary of her $120 million life insurance, witness testifies

Businessman Omar Collymore, who is accused of orchestrating the January 2018 murder of his wife, was one of the beneficiaries of the woman's $120 million life insurance.

The victim's mother testified this morning during the trial in the Home Circuit Court that she found the policy after her daughter's death in the couple's office.

She said the couple's two children were the other beneficiaries.

The witness, who wore a pained and sad expression on her face, also testified that on a night before her daughter's murder, she had noticed a strange car lurking on the road where her house was located.

The witness told the court that she was coming home from watch night services with her mother-in-law about minutes after 1 a.m. when she was waiting outside her house to be let in as she had left her gate remote.

She told the court that she was waiting because calls to her husband, children and gardener were unsuccessful.

The witness said while waiting outside she noticed the car, which was at a dead-end on the lane, after the driver flicked the headlights indicating that it wanted to pass her vehicle.

But, shortly after, she said the car returned and stopped by her neighbour's gate before driving up in front of her car and someone looking into her vehicle.

"I turned down my phone and started to pray because it looked suspicious and I was like Jesus!," she recalled.

Omar 'Best' Collymore and his three co-defendants, Michael Adams, Dewayne Pink and Shaquile Edwards, are being tried for the woman's murder and that of her taxi driver, Winston Watson.

The defendants are being tried for two counts each of murder and a count of conspiracy.

The 32-year-old businesswoman and the 36-year-old taxi operator were gunned down on Stanley Terrace in Red Hills, St Andrew, on January 2, 2018.

Collymore is alleged to have orchestrated his wife's murder and was home at the time of the killing.

The victims were shot and killed when they arrived at the gate of the apartment building where Campbell-Collymore lived.

They were shot by two pillion passengers who were travelling on motorbikes.

Campbell-Collymore, who was reportedly shot 21 times, and Walters both died on the spot.

One of Collymore's former co-accused, Wade Blackwood, who was one of the shooters in the incident, was sentenced on March 11, 2021, to two life sentences on two counts of murder and eight and a half years for illegal possession of a firearm.

The sentences are running concurrently and he will be eligible for parole after serving 35 years.

Attorney-at-law Diane Jobson is representing Collymore, with Pink being represented by attorney Ernest Davis.

Attorneys-at-law Patrick Peterkin and Gnoj McDon are representing Edwards and Adams is being represented by attorney C Mitchell.

- Tanesha Mundle

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