ALFRED — Rennie Cassimy has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in relation to the June 2008 death of Old Orchard Beach resident Winston George.

Cassimy, 49, made his plea Tuesday at York County Superior Court, as part of a plea deal. As a result, an earlier charge of murder has been dropped.

Cassimy is being represented by attorneys Clifford Strike and Heather Gonzales. His attorneys and Assistant District Attorney Leane Zainea have asked that Cassimy serve 8 years of a 20-year prison sentence with four years of probation.

Cassimy is from Trinidad and Tobago and is not a United States citizen. It is likely that after being released from prison he would be deported to his home country, and thus would not have to carry out a post-jail probation.

Forty-five-year-old Winston George was found dead in the basement of his 56 Smithwheel Road home on June 20, 2008.

Early that morning, Old Orchard Beach police responded to a call of a reported break-in made by his then 43-year-old wife, Darlene George, from their home.

Zainea laid out the details of the case.

Police entered the home and found the living room in disarray. They went down a hallway to find Darlene and her then 13-year-old son, Giovanni Whitehead, peeking out of a bedroom, said Zainea. They followed a bloody trail to the basement and found Winston George dead in the basement, bound with rope with a plastic bag over his head, said Zainea.

A further look into police affidavits show that police who saw Winston George at 8:35 that morning found a large amount of blood at the site of his body and an open bottle of rum positioned resting against his lips “as though he were drinking from the bottle.”

Autopsy reports later showed that he died of suffocation and strangulation and had rope injuries on his neck, wrist and ankles, said Zainea.

Darlene and Whitehead reported to police that, upon entering the house, they were grabbed by two unknown men with “fake Jamaican accents” who tied them up with bed sheets and asked repeatedly for drugs, said Zainea.

Witnesses saw Rennie Cassimy and Darlene’s brother, Jeffrey Williams, both of New York, in the area the day of and the day before Winston’s death, according to Zainea.

Cassimy and Williams took a cab from Old Orchard Beach to the Concord Trailways bus terminal, where they took a bus back to New York. Video surveillance showed the two at the Concord Trailways terminal on both days, with Williams carrying a backpack on June 20 that Darlene George had purchased at an Army surplus store, said Zainea.

Cassimy and Williams were later charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder, as was Darlene George.

Just days after Winston’s death, Darlene was inquiring about George’s life insurance policy, said Zainea. Life insurance benefits for Winston were $70,000, twice his annual salary.

The couple’s marriage was “not on solid ground”’ said Zainea.

Zainea said that Cassimy and Darlene George had an established “romantic relationship” that been going on for “quite some period of time.” Cassimy and Darlene were on the same cell phone plan and phone records and receipts from hotels in Old Orchard Beach and Portland show the two were maintaining a relationship. An itinerary from the couple’s April 2008 trip to Trinidad was found during a search of Cassimy’s New York apartment, said Zainea.

Winston had also been having an extra-marital affair with a co-worker, and had seen her the evening before his death.

Cassimy is expected to be sentenced in April.

“He’s profoundly remorseful about what happened,” said Gonzales.

She said Cassimy had not been in trouble in the United States before, and he was caught up in an awful situation.

“He did the right thing today,” she said. “He’s devastated” about his pending incarceration, she said, but even more so regarding what he’s put his family and Winston George’s family through.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.