Murder accused Omar Collymore has denied the allegation that he orchestrated his wife’s murder to claim money from her lucrative life insurance policy.
That policy was worth over $100 million.
In a sworn statement in the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston on Tuesday, Collymore professed his love for his wife, Simone Campbell Collymore. He told the court that he would never do anything to hurt her.
Simone was shot and killed along with her taxi driver, Winston Walters, on January 2, 2018 on Stanley Terrace in Red Hills, St. Andrew.
Robian Williams reports.
It was revealed in court that both Simone and Omar Collymore had two separate identical life issuance policies, one issued in 2015 and the other in 2017.
Simone’s policy in 2015, valued at $21 million dollars, had Collymore and their children as the beneficiaries. The insurance policy in 2017, valued at $80 million, also had Collymore and the children as beneficiaries.
He was allotted 70 per cent of the policy, while the couple’s two children were allotted 15 per cent each.
But Collymore insists that he had no knowledge of the details of the policy; he only signed the documents. He stated further that he’s never seen the policy nor asked how much it was valued.
According to Collymore, he would’ve never agreed to be the beneficiary of the lion’s share of the policies.
When pressed further, he stated, “Because we have two children. If anything happened to me, Simone wouldn’t need the money. If anything happened to her, I wouldn’t need the money because we’re both business people. The beneficiaries would be the kids.”
Collymore’s attorney, Diane Jobson, asked him if there was any truth to the claims that he had his wife killed for the insurance payout.
He responded, “No, none at all; I had nothing to do with the policies. I didn’t even know where the papers were. Ma’am, I love my wife; there was no reason to hurt my wife. I was her protector. I didn’t subcontract no one to hurt my wife, period. I love my wife dearly.”
At this point, Ms. Jobson questioned his extramarital affair with his ex-lover, who testified against him earlier in the trial.
Collymore admitted that the affair started in the latter part of his marriage. He added that when Simone found out, it became more stressful as they were already having marital problems.
He said, “At the Campbell’s residence, when you speak to your wife, you’re speaking to her mother and father… When you try to advise your wife on certain things, you have to walk on eggshells.”
Collymore claimed that he and Simone spoke, and she understood why I stepped out of the marriage.
He went further saying, “I felt unwanted, like I wasn’t a man… me not being comfortable with my own wife, feeling like I’m a boy…You have your wife, and she seeks approval from her mom or her dad. She understood. So that’s why we rekindled. I made mistakes, yeah, but it’s not like it didn’t come from a beginning issue. It was shown in therapy that there was a beginning issue.”
Collymore told the court that he and Simone relocated to Jamaica from the United States in 2010 after they tied the knot to take up a business opportunity her parents offered.
They both lived with Simone’s parents up until September 2017. Collymore moved out of the Campbell’s residence following an altercation he had with Simone after she accused him of cheating.
Based on evidence, Simone moved in with Omar in an apartment approximately a week before she was killed.
The trial resumes on Wednesday morning at 10.
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