Trio pleads not guilty to murder charges

Mpho Mokwape | Friday July 18, 2014 13:41

 

The trio, Kabelo Riordan, Matthews Monei and Francis Monei yesterday entered into a plea of not guilty when they appeared before Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo at the High Court. They are alleged to have killed the man in 2000 following an altercation over a lady.

The case dragged for almost 14 years ago due to the resignation of its presiding judge then and the death of the investigating officer.

Meanwhile on Tuesday as the case was bound to start again, Dibotelo moved the case to yesterday when Mathews Monei failed to appear in court for allegedly having suffered a mental breakdown.

The judge had ordered that he be located and brought to court by the investigating officer and further announced that the case will start afresh with the state re-calling all its witnesses to the stand. First to take the stand at the hearing was 42-year-old unemployed Mpho Daqui, giving an account of what transpired on the night of May 27, 2000. She told the court that during that fateful night she had gone to a bar where she was met by a friend who was in the company of two gentleman she distinguished as Zimbabweans since they did not speak clear English.

She said the gentlemen offered to buy them drinks which they accepted despite hardly knowing them, adding that before she could even have the drinks a guy came and grabbed her and dragged her to the nearby tuckshop.

“Kabelo was the one who came and dragged me while the two gentlemen remained seated and my friend later asked them to help me and that is when the altercation erupted,” she said.

Daqui said she managed to get out and ran home with her friend while Riordan and the others chased after the two gentlemen while assaulting them.

She said the following day she heard that one of the two gentlemen had died.

Kelebogile Sebifelo, Jacob Maposa who turned state witness and the investigating officer all testified for the prosecution. With little cross-examination from the state lawyer, Matlhogonolo Phuthego and the trio’s lawyer Fashole Luke, the state concluded its case in just under a day. In response, Luke made submissions of no case to answer citing that his clients were acting in self-defence as the deceased and his friend attacked them.

“My clients only acted in self defence as the duo were attacking them and I pray that the court acquits them on the charge of murder,” Luke said.

Ruling has been reserved for September 11, 2014.