Things looked dark for baby murder accused Dina Rodrigues at the end of the first day of a marathon judgement in the Cape High Court on Thursday.
Judge Basheer Waglay told a packed courtroom that he accepted expert evidence that her thumbprints and handwriting were found on a waybill left at the scene of the June 2005 killing of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton.
The state has claimed she hired her four co-accused to pose as deliverymen to carry out the slaying, and supplied them with the waybill for that purpose.
Waglay also said he found Rodrigues’s former lover Neil Wilson to have been a ”satisfactory, honest and truthful” witness.
Wilson testified that on the day of the murder, Rodrigues told him in a phone conversation that Jordan was dead ”and she had paid R10 000 for it to go away”.
Later, Wilson testified, she broke down outside the office of the police investigating officer and said to him: ”Oh my God, what have I done, I’m going to jail.”
Wilson fathered Jordan with Natasha Norton in a previous relationship, and had told the court Rodrigues was upset, angry and ”somewhat jealous” when she learned he had had a child with someone else.
Waglay said the fact that Wilson did not immediately tell police what Rodrigues told him could be excused by the fact that he had been in an extremely difficult emotional position.
The judge also said he accepted the evidence of a courier company employee that he handed Rodrigues the blank waybill at her place of work before the murder.
Waglay began reading out his 150-page judgement at 10.15am, but by 4pm, the time the High Court normally adjourns for the day, had reached only page 48.
Every word of the judgement is being interpreted into Xhosa for the benefit of Rodrigues’s co-accused, Sipho Mfazwe, Mongezi Bobotyane, Zanethemba Gwada and Bonginkosi Sigenu.
At 4.45pm, Waglay looked at the legal teams arrayed in front of him and said ruefully: ”I don’t think I can read any more.”
He adjourned the hearing to noon on Friday.
A court official said Waglay had read 58 pages at that stage, but that he might edit the document overnight to shorten the remainder.
About 250 people, including members of the public, correctional services security officials in bullet-proof jackets, police, lawyers and journalists, packed into court one for the hearing.
Natasha Norton, her current lover Andrew Moolman and other members of the Norton family were greeted with applause when they entered the courtroom and took places reserved for them in what is normally used as seating for the media.
The Norton contingent all wore black suits and pink shirts or tops, the males all wearing pink ties.
In an unexpected gesture of support Wilson, who has been absent from court except when he gave testimony, took up a seat alongside the family.
He too was dressed in black and pink.
When Rodrigues and her co-accused were brought up from the cells, handcuffed as usual, a phalanx of correctional services officials formed a human wall behind them.
Proceedings were interrupted soon after Waglay began reading the judgment by the wail of an infant in the public gallery.
No children allowed,” Waglay said. ”Please take the children out.”
After the lunchtime break, there was near chaos at the entrance to the court building when members of the public tried to push through to get seats.
Court security officials and police battled to hold them back as the pressure of the sweating crowd pushed back the metal detector at the security checkpoint.
All five accused face charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Rodrigues alone faces an intimidation charge, related to threatening SMS messages she allegedly sent to Wilson.
There is intense media interest in the judgement, which is being recorded by television stations for use in news bulletins.
Baby Jordan, then six months old, died of a stab wound to the neck after a group of men entered the Norton family home in Lansdowne, Cape Town, on June 15 2005. — Sapa