Notorious gang leader Joel Andem will face trial on August 24.

Andem, who is facing six charges of shooting, was yesterday remanded in custody when he made his second appearance in the Home Circuit Court.

But he will return to court today for the preliminary hearing of a murder charge levelled against him by police detectives.

Police say Andem and his crony, Alrick “Tata” Simpson, approached Lennox Ffrench of Old Hope Road and shot him to death in June 2000.

Simpson was killed in 2002 by a licensed firearm holder after he and Kevin ‘Ninja’ Hunter had gone to a construction site at Braemar Avenue in Kingston and tried to extort money.

Yesterday Andem, who had eluded cops for four years before his anti-climactic capture on May 26, was transported to court in a large security convoy which included marked police vehicles from the Mobile Reserve and Jamaica Defence Force “rat patrol” jeeps.

Soldiers and cops lined the area around the Supreme Court and some soldiers took up positions in a parking garage facing the courthouse.

Andem appeared calm as he left the police vehicle and was being taken to the number four court in handcuffs. Cops flanked him on either side. He was dressed in a grey plaid shirt, beige pants and white shoes.

The fugitive, wearing a defiant scowl, flashed a boyish smile when a group of his well-wishers who had gathered at Barry Street shouted greetings.

Among the group, which numbered about 10, were Andem’s two sisters and the mother of one of his children.

“We love you. You must come a road,” one of his sisters shouted as he was being taken into the holding area for prisoners at the courthouse.

Andem seemed relieved to see his loved ones and smiled in their direction while slowly nodding his head.

His lawyer Owen Shackleford attempted to make a bail application for his client, but was told by justice Donald McIntosh that he should make the appeal for bail in his chambers.

The hearing lasted no longer than 10 minutes, and Andem was again shackled and whisked back to the New Horizon Remand Centre.

Yesterday, 21 year-old Veniesha Griffiths – who was held in the house with Andem last month – was denied bail on the grounds that she had been living with the fugitive for four years. She was remanded until next Wednesday.

Another man, 72 year-old Kenneth “Reezy” Watson, who is said to be Andem’s father, was offered $100,000 bail last Friday and had his bail offer extended until Wednesday.

Both are charged with harbouring a wanted fugitive.

Joel Andem made the police’s most wanted list in 2000 after the brutal murders of businesswoman Sylvia Edwards and her brother-in-law, Everett Edwards.

Police say he is the leader of the Gideon Warriors gang which is responsible for running a large extortion racket in the Papine area. The gang is also said to be responsible for over 22 murders.