‘We were high and can’t be blamed’
Three people accused of killing a woman and burning her body, have blamed the incident on drugs and hunger.
|||Johannesburg - Three people accused of killing a woman, stealing her jewellery and setting her body alight have blamed the incident on drug use, sleep deprivation, hunger and financial difficulties.
Candice Prevost, her former fiancé Wayne Williams and her current fiancé Ashley de Villiers allegedly lured Nthabiseng Selesho to their house under the pretext of buying jewellery from her.
Allegations are that they killed her, took her company’s jewellery, then drove many kilometres away to Lenasia and set her body alight as it lay slumped in her car.
Prevost and Williams said although they were there from the beginning to the end of the crime, they could not be blamed for their actions.
“We do believe, however, that we both acted as we did because we were so under the influence of drugs and so severely sleep and food deprived,” they said in their joint plea explanation.
“Although we knew what was happening most of the time, if we had not been under the influence of drugs and the lack of sleep, we never would have been involved in the commission of a crime.”
The trial started on Monday at the high court sitting in Palm Ridge, after being postponed eight times.
The defence wanted another postponement on Monday, claiming that they still needed to consult and get outstanding documents. However prosecutor advocate Rolene Bester asked the court that the defence not be granted yet another postponement because the State had been ready to proceed since August 3.
After referencing previous cases and also the constitution, the judge refused to grant the postponement, saying the matter should proceed.
Prevost, Williams and De Villiers pleaded not guilty to 23-year-old Selesho’s murder.
However, Williams pleaded guilty to robbery.
De Villiers did not advance a plea explanation.
Both Prevost and Williams claim that the three of them had planned to rob Selesho and that killing her was never part of the plan. Even the robbery was supposed to happen somewhere else, not at their home.
The pair’s plea explanation states that Prevost and De Villiers took Williams into their home because he had lost his two homes due to his drug use spiralling out of control. His parents, from Wales, also stopped sending him money as they could no longer afford to.
One day when they were broke, Prevost suggested they rob Selesho.
Prevost was Selesho’s client and knew how she operated and that she carried lots of jewellery.
Selesho was invited to their Boksburg home and later died after being strangled by Williams and De Villiers.
Her charred remains were later discovered in her burnt-out car. The pair also claims that they had used drugs prior to the incident and were therefore not lucid at the time of the crime.
The State’s first witness, who is Selesho’s former colleague, testified that she had called Prevost to check whether she knew Selesho’s whereabouts. Natalie Bezuidenhout said she had called Prevost because Selesho had written in her diary that she was going to see her. When Selesho failed to show up at her next client, Bezuidenhout called Prevost.
“She (Prevost) said she (Selesho) was there at 12 and left at 1pm,” she said.
Bezuidenhout also revealed that the jewellery company she and Selesho were working for was shut down after the murder.
At the beginning of the trial, Prevost issued a letter of apology to Selesho’s family that she wanted to read through her lawyer.
However, the prosecutor blocked that move, saying it was not the time for that.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za
The Star
* E-mail your opinion to IOLletters@inl.co.za and we will consider it for publication or use our Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.