October 22, 2006
Man on murder charge to remain in custody
Joseph Francis, the man accused of the 2004 stabbing death of his common-law wife, Paulette Reid-Nelson, will remain in custody until he returns to court on November 22.
Francis appeared in the Mandeville Resident Magistrate’s Court last Thursday for the second time since the police captured him in bushes in St Catherine last month.
Francis told the court that he could not afford a lawyer. The court heard that no legal aid assignment had been made to him as yet.
The clerk told the court that Francis’ case file was still incomplete and the judge, Justice Oswald Burchenson, instructed an assistant clerk to interview Francis.
There was also still no post-mortem report.