PATTING her chest at different intervals and crying profusely, wife of slain taxi operator Winston Walters gave emotional testimony in court on Friday as she recalled the day her husband was killed.

She recalled trying to reach her husband by telephone at different points in the afternoon on January 2, 2018, but to no avail.

The wife was giving evidence in the Home Circuit Court from a remote location, during the murder trial of Omar Collymore and his co-accuseds Shaquille Edwards, Michael Adams and Dewayne Pink.

The men are being tried on two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to murder in connection with the January 2, 2018 double murder of Walters and businesswoman Simone Collymore.

Simone was the wife of Omar Collymore.

Walters, who was driving his cab with Simone as the passenger, was gunned down along with her on Stanley Terrace in Red Hills, St Andrew, just outside the apartment complex where the businesswoman lived with Collymore, her husband.

Collymore was said to have been at home at the time of the incident.

The wife of Walters told the court that before leaving home on the morning he was killed, “He said he didn’t feel the vibes to go to work but said he was going to do it for the kids. He left out between 8:30 am and 9:00 am. He was supposed to take me to the bank to add my name to an account he opened so he called me after 2:00 pm and I spoke to him briefly. I had a headache and couldn’t go so I told him that we would do it the other day. I never spoke to him again.”

She said she sent text messages to him sometime after 4:00 pm but there was no response.

“I waited a while and, after sending another message, I called and called. At 6:30 pm I was watching Indian shows when I got a call from the taxi company that he had an accident. I told the kids to get dressed because we have to go to the hospital. I ended up going to my mother’s house.

“On January 3, 2018 I went to the Constant Spring Police Station where the police showed me the car. The windscreen was gone and they handed me his belongings. January 11, 2018 was when we did the autopsy at the Tranquility Funeral Home where I identified the body of my husband.”

Taking into consideration the wife’s emotional state, defence attorneys opted not to pose any questions to her.

Another witness, who is a security officer at the apartment complex where Simone and Collymore lived, testified that a strange man who was in a parked blue car inside the complex turned out to be one of the shooters in Simone’s murder.

The security officer testified that in the log book at the gate the suspicious man was logged as being a visitor of Omar Collymore.

He also testified that Simone had made checks with him to find out the different times her husband entered and exited the complex. It was not made clear why she had made these checks.

“Monday, January 1, I was on duty from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am on January 2, 2018. I recall 1:59 am, when I was at the guard house, and Mrs Collymore drove up to the gate from her house. I went inside and retrieved the log book. I approached Mrs Collymore and showed proof to the information she requested. January 1, Mr Collymore entered at 9:30 pm and exited at 10:40 pm. He came back at 1:02 am and left the compound after 6:00 am the morning of January 2.”

“At 2:35 am Mrs Collymore returned to the premises. I was making a routine foot patrol when I observed a light blue Toyota motor vehicle parked adjacent to [the] car park; this was right across from the Collymores’ residence. Mr Collymore was the person the driver came to. I had never seen that vehicle before. I jotted down the licence plate and inspected the vehicle. The vehicle did not come there whilst I was working my shift so I checked the log book.

“I saw an individual in the driver’s seat, sleeping. I continued to walk around the car. I used my foot to bounce the vehicle to awaken the individual. He slightly lifted his head and put it back down. I could see his face, hand and complexion. At 6:00 am I was at apartment number one by the fence.

“I positioned myself there because I wanted to see clearly who was coming out of the vehicle. At 6:00 am the person exited the vehicle and walked off in the direction of apartment number two, and knocked on the door. I went to the pool area for a minute and when I realised nothing unusual was taking place, I went back to the guard house,” he told the court.

He said while at home in the afternoon on the same day, he received a phone call with instructions to report to the guard house at the apartment complex. He complied, and when he got to the location he said he saw a large crowd and the police.

He was then taken into a room to review security camera footage of the day’s happenings. He said that when he watched the tape, he saw two men pumping bullets into a motor vehicle at the gate of the apartment complex, and said one of the shooters was the man he saw sleeping in the blue car on the compound earlier that morning.

“When I got there, officers were already viewing the surveillance system and I viewed it as well. I viewed a dark blue, four-door taxi approaching the gate. Following behind were two motorcycles with two riders and two pillion. A female guard was approaching the gate to see who it was. By that time, the two pillion came off. One went to the passenger side and the other went to the driver side. I could see the men in their entirety. I noticed that the first shooter that came on the driver’s side was the same individual I saw the morning who [had] come out of the blue car and went to Mr Collymore. He had on the same clothes.”

The security officer will continue his testimony on Monday, when the trial will resume.