Give killer maximum penalty – family

As the sentencing date inches closer for one of the killers of Simone Campbell-Collymore, her family is pressing for the maximum sentence to be imposed, preferably life without parole.

Keshtina Bonner, the younger sister of the businesswoman, who would have been 36 this year, is adamant that murderers should not be allowed to enjoy “basic liberties”.

“Why should they come back out on the road and put other families in fear? Why give them the opportunity to let it happen at their hands again?” asked Bonner in an interview with The Gleaner on Wednesday.

The fate of confessed killer Wade Blackwood will be decided on Friday at a sentencing hearing in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

Blackwood, who had given the police a detailed statement about the horrifying ordeal, which also claimed the life of Campbell-Collymore’s driver, Winston Walters, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and illegal possession of firearm and ammunition in the Home Circuit Court.

Wade outlined in a caution statement, five months after the killing, how Campbell-Collymore screamed as he and a crony sprayed her taxi with bullets as it was about to enter her Forest Ridge apartment complex in Red Hills, St Andrew, on January 2, 2018.

Campbell-Collymore was shot 19 times and died from multiple wounds to the chest and abdomen, with injuries to the lung, liver, and right kidney, while Walters was shot five times and died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head.

The woman’s husband, Omar ‘Best’ Collymore, on whose behest the murder allegedly occurred, is among four men charged in connection with the double murder.

Bonner said on Wednesday that although nothing can bring back her beloved sister or ease the family’s pain, they would want the book to be thrown at Blackwood.

“We would just want the maximum, whatever that is. Some would say the death penalty, but Jamaica doesn’t offer that anymore, so the family just want him to be put away for a very long time,” she said.

Bonner lamented that five children have been left behind motherless or fatherless between Campbell-Collymore and Walters.

“We don’t think these individuals should be allowed to just do a little stint and come back out and move on.”

“That would be horrible because then we would feel unsafe,” Bonner added.

Although three years have passed since her sister died, she said the pain has not subsided, especially for her 11-year-old niece and nine-year-old nephew, who have lost both parents.

In the meantime, Bonner said that the family hopes that all the accused men will ‘fess up” and be sentenced so that the family can move on and get closure.

Campbell-Collymore’s granduncle, Orlando Powell, like her sister, has had Campbell-Collymore’s picture on his WhatsApp status display and vows never to remove it. He believes Blackwood and his co-accused should not be shown any mercy.

“In my opinion, there are some persons who, because of the crimes they have committed, have forfeited their right to live in the society now because the possibility is that they will ... do some other heinous crime,” he said.

Powell said that an apology, or some sincere show of remorse, by the killers would be welcome.

For him, the death of his grandniece still seems surreal. To date, he has not found words to describe his pain.

“She has left an emptiness and a void that will never be filled,” Powell shared.

“They say time heals all wounds, but not in this case ... . When you hear how he explains her screams, that will be a continuous scream for the family,” he added.

Meanwhile, eforts to reach Walters’ widow for comment were unsuccessful.

The brutal slaying of the two victims was captured on closed-circuit television and appeared to be one of the factors that nudged Blackwood to plead guilty.

The video recordings and the quality of still images showed Blackwood approaching the front passenger side of the vehicle and firing into it, court documents revealed.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com