THE TRIAL of the four men who are charged with the murder of Sylvia Edwards, 48, the gas station operator who was kidnapped for ransom, was put off on Monday because one of the lawyers withdrew from the case.
Justice Neville Clarke ordered the men to return to court today, when another lawyer will be assigned to the case so that another trial date can be set.
Edwards was kidnapped and murdered in July 2000, after demands for money were not met. The accused men are Rupert Wallace, Rohan Masters, Alrick Simpson and Howard Lindsay, labourers of Kingston.
Alrick Simpson is on $500,000 bail with a surety, while Howard Lindsay is on $250,000 bail with a surety. The other men are in custody awaiting trial. When the case came for trial on Monday, the court was informed that attorney-at-law Jack Hines, who represented Wallace, had withdrawn from the case. The case was put off until today to settle Wallace's legal representation.
Edwards, who along with her husband operated a gas station on Waltham Park Road, Kingston 11, was trailed from her Plantation Heights home, St. Andrew, in July 2000 and abducted on Red Hills Road. On July 31 her body was found with gunshot wounds in a shallow grave at University Heights.
Shem Powell, a fifth man charged in connection with the murder, was shot dead on September 30 last year, weeks after he was offered bail.
WITNESS KILLED
On November 30 last year, Everette Edwards, brother-in-law of Mrs. Edwards, and a witness in her murder case, was shot dead at a bus stop near to his workplace.
Mr. Edwards, 52, worked as an accountant at the Esso gas station at the intersection of Waltham and Hagley Park roads, with his younger brother, Errol, widower of Sylvia. He had just left work at 4 p.m. and was waiting at a bus stop to go home when a lone gunman shot him and fled.
