Staff Writer

 Rennie Cassimy testified Thursday his lover of more than a decade asked him to kill her husband so she would not lose property in a divorce.

    Cassimy pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a deal with prosecutors that requires him to testify during the murder trial of Darlene George and her brother, Jeffrey Williams.

    The trial of Darlene George and Williams continues this week at York County Superior Court in Alfred. They are accused of killing Winston George, 44, in the basement of his Old Orchard Beach home on June 20, 2008.

    Cassimy, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who speaks with a heavy accent, said he met Darlene George at a party 14 years ago and they became lovers six weeks later. She was married to her first husband, Franklin Whiteman, at the time and the relationship with Cassimy continued after she later married Winston George and moved to Maine from New York, he said.

    Cassimy called her “wifey” and she referred to him as “husband,” he said.

    Cassimy lived in a Brooklyn apartment building owned by Darlene George and she paid for his cell phone, he said. They spoke on the phone as many as 10 times each day and saw each other at least twice a month, he said.

    They also met in hotel rooms for sex when he would come to Maine, usually in Old Orchard Beach hotels where her red Chevy Blazer would not be noticed, he said.

    Cassimy said it was in that car that he, Darlene George and Williams discussed how to kill Winston George. They were parked in front of Cassimy’s apartment while Darlene George’s son, Giovanni, was inside with two of his 10 children.

    Darlene George did not want to lose any of the properties in a divorce, Cassimy said. The properties included two Old Orchard Beach houses, the Brooklyn apartment building and two properties in Trinidad Winston George inherited from family.

    “She said she want him to go, she want him out,” he said.

    During the conversation in New York, Williams and Cassimy agreed to each try to find a gun, Cassimy testified. Darlene George gave Cassimy money for bus tickets to Maine and a yellow rope to bring with him, he said.

    Winston George was strangled and suffocated when he was hog-tied with a yellow rope wrapped three times around his neck and a plastic bag tied over his head. A rum bottle was shoved in his mouth and he had knife cuts on his head.

    “My specific role was just to be there because she had nobody else to trust to be there,” Cassimy said.

    Cassimy said when he came to Old Orchard Beach the weekend before the murder Darlene George showed him how to drive Winston George’s car, where to park it after the murder and how to walk to the Smithwheel Road house on back roads.

    During his testimony, Cassimy outlined the day he traveled to Maine with Williams by bus. Darlene George picked them up at a Portland bus terminal, drove them to an Old Orchard Beach hotel and told them to be at her house at 10 p.m., he said.

    Cassimy said he and Williams tied up Darlene George and Giovanni, then 13, when they arrived home from a shopping trip. They staged the house to look like it had been ransacked during a robbery and waited for Winston to arrive home from work after midnight, he said.

    Cassimy said he stayed upstairs while Williams killed Winston George in the basement. When Darlene George wanted to know if he was dead, Cassimy went to the basement, cut a hole in the bag over his head and put a rum bottle in his mouth, he said.

    Cassimy said he would know Winston George was alive if he responded to the strong rum from Trinidad.

    “He never responded,” he said.

    Cassimy testified he and Williams then went back to their hotel room before taking a taxi to the Portland bus terminal and a bus home to New York, where they later were arrested.

    Darlene George, who was arrested in March 2009, said she was not having a romantic relationship with Cassimy and was not having marriage problems. She said she was trying to get pregnant and seeing a fertility specialist.

    The trial is expected to continue into next week.