Collymore co-accused freed after conspiracy plea; landfill fire and Troy unrest also in focus

Shakeela Edwards is free after pleading guilty to conspiracy to murder in the Home Circuit Court, where Justice Chester Stamp imposed seven years and six months and credited the term as time already spent in custody. Edwards had been accused with Omar Collymore, Kerry Jonas, Dwayne Pink and Michael Adams of conspiracy to murder, shooting with intent and illegal possession of a firearm. A trial set earlier this month was put off after the Crown sought more time. Defence lawyers were allowed to file written submissions seeking dismissal by September 4, with the prosecution to reply before oral arguments on September 18. Collymore and the remaining co-accused still face those charges.

All except Jonas had earlier stood trial with Collymore for the killings of Simone Collymore and driver Winston Walters. Collymore, Pink and Adams were convicted of the murders; Edwards of conspiracy. The Crown says Collymore’s former partner, with whom he had a three-year relationship, was shot on December 23, 2017, on Sandringham Park Road in Kingston when men in a white car fired on her vehicle. She had ended the relationship about two months before his wife was killed. Investigators allege Collymore arranged to meet her in December to swap a gift after inviting her to lunch two days earlier and giving her the wrong item. The alleged attack came days before the double killing. On May 15, 2024, after a four-month trial, Collymore, Pink and Adams were found guilty; they were sentenced in July. Collymore received two life terms with parole eligibility after 46 years and six months, concurrent; Adams, described by the Crown as the contract killer, two life terms with eligibility after 42 years and six months; Pink two life terms with eligibility after 32 years and six months. Edwards, found to have withdrawn from the murder plot before the killings, was earlier convicted only of conspiracy and sentenced to one year. Counsel were Dan Jobson for Collymore, Vanessa Taylor for Pink, Sanje Smith for Adams, Vivian Wilson for Jonas and Peter McDonald for Edwards.

In St. James, fire is again burning at the Retirement Landfill, with heavy smoke from at least two sections of the dump. The cause is unclear. It follows an earlier July blaze that Western Parks and Markets linked to deposited waste. The Jamaica Fire Brigade and WPM are working to contain and extinguish the fire.

In Troy, the arrest of a resident over the mob killing of convicted sex offender Delroy Coke has renewed anger. Protestor Kay said Coke sexually assaulted her son at age seven; he is now 14. Police confirmed Coke’s conviction and a five-year sentence at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre. Kay said residents urged authorities not to let Coke return after he finished that sentence in August 2025. Her son later left for another parish with his father. More than 100 people demonstrated Thursday. Juliet Williams, aunt of 10-year-old Shanique Coke, raped and murdered earlier this week, believes Delroy Coke was responsible though police say they have no evidence linking him. Shanique was to spend the summer with Williams in Falmouth. Kay also alleged Coke raped another cousin while holding a knife to her neck and was arrested in that matter. Kimberly Dawkins said she feared Coke for years, reported him peeping at her window to Warsop police, then was summoned after a Coke relative accused her of threats. She said she was warned at the station and no longer lets her children play unsupervised. Maxwell Henry has been arrested as a suspect in Coke’s killing; police named two more residents as persons of interest. Shanique’s father, Ashton Coke, said she left for a nearby shop and never returned. Grandmother Merle Williams described the search before the child’s body was found in nearby bushes. Residents acted on Coke’s history, not a witnessed crime, in attacking him.

In St. Elizabeth, 28-year-old construction worker Estavan Davis of Beadles Boulevard, Santa Cruz, is charged with wounding with intent. Police say about midday on Saturday, July 12, he rode up on a motorcycle beside a man walking on a roadway, chopped the complainant’s left hand with a machete and fled. The victim was taken to hospital. Davis was later arrested; a court date is being set.