Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
SOME PRISONERS, including the two co-accused of 42-year-old
reputed gang leader Joel Andem, were not taken to court yesterday.
It was reported that the prisoner truck had broken down. When Andem appeared in the Home Circuit Court yesterday, a trial date could not be set in his murder case because the other accused were absent.
Justice Kay Beckford told the lawyers that only a mention date could be set because the men were not in court.
The judge said before a trial date was fixed, she had to ensure that the two accused were not dead.
A mention date was set for June 12.
Andem and his co-accused are charged with the murder of 48-year-old gas station operator Sylvia Edwards.
The other two accused are 44-year-old businessman Rupert Wallace, of Garveymeade, Portmore, St. Catherine; and 24-year-old Rohan Masters, of 66 Luke Lane, Kingston.
Mrs. Edwards, who lived in Plantation Heights, St. Andrew, was kidnapped along Red Hills Road, St. Andrew, in July 2000.
When a demand for a ransom of $200,000 was not met, she was shot dead and buried in a shallow grave in Constitution Hill in the parish. The body was found on August 1, 2000.
Andem was on the police most wanted list for four years until he was captured in Clarksonville, St. Ann, in May 2004.
