The state may be able to speed up a 19-year-old’s High Court trial for the murder of a baby girl, the rape and murder of her mother, the murder of her grandmother and the rape of a teenager, a state advocate said on Tuesday.
State Advocate Dewald Reynierse said in the Circuit High Court at Temba, north of Pretoria, on Tuesday there had been ”developments”.
”This could be beneficial to the prosecution and speed up the trial a lot,” he said before the 14-charge trial started its second day.
On Monday, a belligerent William Kekana said ”Fuck jou [fuck you]” to cameramen and media before the trial began before Judge Monica Leeuw.
He pleaded not guilty to 14 charges including three of murder, two of rape and four of kidnapping.
His legal team set in motion a trial within a trial, contradicting an earlier alleged confession of guilt to investigators who claimed he had ”voluntarily” agreed to point out the crime scenes.
Defence counsel Janus Roothman disputed the voluntary nature of the ”pointing out”.
The state’s first witness, Captain Johan Diedericks of Johannesburg’s violent crimes unit, told the court that Kekana had opted to cooperate when asked if he would point out the crime scenes.
Diedericks testified that Kekana said: ”I want to go ahead with it. I want to get it of my heart as it bothers me. I was not alone.”
Kekana was arrested on August 13 last year for the hijacking and abduction of Kayla Rawstone; her mother, Janine Drennen (24); and her grandmother, Hester Rawstone (52), after Kayla’s first birthday party in Sunnyside, Pretoria.
The charge sheet declared that Kekana and his accomplice, Fido Baloyi, hijacked the Rawstone family while they were on their way back home after celebrating Kayla’s birthday at a restaurant in Sunnyside.
They were last seen alive by a friend, Colenso Beckley, as he waved goodbye to them from his flat at 6.15pm.
At 7.49pm Janine’s fiancée and Kayla’s father, Rowcliff ”Clifford” Rawstone, received a SMS from Drennen alerting him to the situation. At 7.52pm he received a second SMS telling him to call the police.
At 8pm, Baloyi’s sister, Mmamoloko Baloyi, living near Stinkwater, also called the police after she saw Kayla in the back of a car that her brother and Kekana were driving. They had allegedly arrived at her house before driving off again.
The charge sheet described how Drennan and a 17-year-old girl — who had been kidnapped near Stinkwater while walking along a street with her boyfriend — were raped and shot in bush near Stinkwater.
Kayla was also shot in the head and killed. Drennan died, but the 17-year-old, who had been left for dead after also being shot in the head, managed to walk to her boyfriend’s house and called the police.
Hester Rawstone had been killed earlier — shot and thrown out of the car on the Hebron Road, outside Pretoria.
On August 1, police found the hijacked car on its roof and nearby found Drennan and Kayla’s bodies. Rawstone’s body was found later the same day.
When Kekana was arrested he was allegedly found in possession of a 9mm handgun. Ballistic reports allegedly matched the gun to rounds that killed Kayla and Drennan.
Fingerprints and DNA samples found also allegedly matched Kekana’s, according to the charge sheet.
His alleged accomplice, Fido Baloyi, was shot while police tried to arrest him.
The case continues on Tuesday. Kekana is in custody. — Sapa