THE LAWYERS representing 42-year-old reputed gang leader Joel Andem yesterday complained to the court that their client has been suffering from toothache since last year and has been denied access to a dentist.
Mr. Justice Wesley James has since ordered that a letter be sent from the Supreme Court to the prison authority for Andem to be taken to a dentist.
Andem appeared in the Home Circuit Court yesterday along with co-accused 44-year-old businessman Rupert Wallace, of Garveymeade, Portmore, St. Catherine and 24-year-old Rohan Masters, of 66 Luke Lane, Kingston. They are charged with the murder of 48-year-old gas station operator Sylvia Edwards.
The men were remanded in custody to return to court on May 11 when the case will again be mentioned.
Andem's lawyers Berthan MaCaulay, Q.C., Janet Nosworthy and Lloyd Shackleford are seeking to have a separate trial for Andem.
Wallace is being represented by attorney-at-law Jack Hines while Masters is being represented by attorney-at-law Tom Tavares-Finson.
Another mention date was set in the case to give the prosecution time to serve Mr. Finson with the relevant documents.
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, St. Andrew.
Wallace, Masters and 32-year-old craft vendor Howard Lindsay were convicted in 2003 of the murder.
They appealed and in December last year, the Court of Appeal freed Lindsay and sent back the case of the other two men for retrial.
Andem was on the police most wanted list for four years until he was captured in Clarksonville, St. Ann in May last year.
