Prosecution probes if witness was under duress when interviewed by cops
THE prosecution in the murder trial of Omar Collymore and his three co-accused on Friday expressed the intention to have video footage of murder convict-turned-witness Wade Blackwood being interviewed by detectives, entered into evidence so as to establish whether he was under duress when he gave two separate statements.
Prosecutors also sought to establish whether Blackwood had identified one of the accused men by name during these interviews.
The accused man in question is Dewayne Pink.
Pink, along with Omar Collymore, Shaquile Edwards and Michael Adams, are on trial for the brazen murders of Collymore’s wife, Simone and taxi driver Winston Walters.
Prosecutors continued re-examination of Blackwood on Friday in the Home Circuit Court trial in Kingston.
“After all the statements I was frustrated and tired,” Blackwood said during re-examination by the prosecution.
Blackwood, who was caught on camera and was identified as one of two shooters, pleaded guilty to the January 2, 2018 double murder of Simone and Walters and was handed two life sentences with eligibility for parole after he spends 35 years in prison. He also received a sentence for the gun he used in the killings.
After agreeing this year to testify in the case Blackwood had 15 years shaved off his sentence, which makes him eligible for parole after 20 years.
Blackwood claimed that Omar Collymore put out a $2-million hit on Simone and that a community enforcer from Brooke Valley in Duhaney Park, St Andrew, by the name “Jim”, who was subsequently killed by the police, threatened him into carrying out the killing. He said that Jim was the second shooter in the killings.
According to Blackwood, he is sure that he knows Pink and Michael Adams.
Attorney-at-law Earnest Davis, who is representing Pink, challenged Blackwood on Thursday as to whether he truly knows Pink.
Davis said Blackwood never identified his client by his correct first and last names in his statements, until 2024.
In 2024 when he received the plea deal Blackwood wrote another statement in which he stated Pink’s correct name.
“I knew him before as Denver Pink. I knew his name to be Dewayne Pink when coming to court with him,” Blackwood told the seven-member jury on Friday.
The trial resumes on March 11.
