Omar Collymore questioned about trying to leave Ja before wife’s funeral

Omar Collymore, a Barbados-born American citizen, is claiming that personnel from the United States had warned him to leave Jamaica shortly after his wife was gunned down on January 2, 2018.

The admission was made by Collymore in response to questions from prosecutor Andrea Martin Swaby on why he was taken off a flight on January 27, the day of his wife's funeral.

The 41-year-old testified in his defence that about a week after his wife's murder, he was ambushed and shot while at a car insurance company in Kingston.

He further claimed that while he was in hospital persons from the US embassy visited him and told him to take precaution while he was in Jamaica and to visit them when he was released.

Collymore said when he eventually visited the embassy, he was advised to leave the island.

He further said that on the day when he was leaving, persons from the embassy escorted him to the airport.

When asked by Martin Swaby why he was held leaving on the day of his wife's funeral, he said he did not know that was her funeral date.

He claimed that he learned about the funeral date the day after.

"You said you loved her dearly wouldn't you stay close to the family to find out about her funeral? Martin Swaby asked.

"Not if me and the family were at odds," he replied.

Questioned if he didn't get information from mutual friends, Collymore said he did not have his phone.

Collymore said after he was removed from the plane he was taken in for questioning and released.

According to him, he was leaving to go home and would have returned to Jamaica when he saw it fit.
After he was taken off the flight, he said he went to stay at a guest house in St Elizabeth as his wife was just killed and that he was shot at, and it appeared as if someone was after him too.

He also told the court that he went to that particular guest house as he and his wife went there a few times and it would bring back good memories of her.

Asked what his next move was, he said he waited to hear from his lawyer.

Collymore, and his alleged accomplices, alleged contract killer Michael Adams, Dwayne Pink and Shaquille Edwards are each charged with two counts of murder and conspiracy to murder.

The men were implicated in the brazen daylight contract killing of 32-year-old Simone Campbell-Collymore and taxi driver Winston 'Corey' Walters, 36, on January 2, 2018, allegedly masterminded by Collymore.

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.

Collymore is accused of orchestrating her murder in order to collect $76 million from her two life insurance policies.

The trial has so far heard that Collymore hired Adams to facilitate the murder of his wife and that Edwards and Pink allegedly played a role in trailing the businesswoman's movements before her death.

One of the triggermen in Campbell-Collymore's murder previously testified that he was told that the hit was for $2 million.

Wade Blackwood, a confessed member of the Unruly Gang, who is currently serving two life sentences for the murders, had disclosed that he got the price tag from the other shooter, 'Jim', the now-deceased alleged leader of the Unruly Gang, to which they all reportedly belonged.

Blackwood also testified that Adams was the contract killer and was the one who spoke with the man who had ordered the hit on the woman.

- Tanesha Mundle

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