Dina Rodrigues did not flinch on Monday as a Cape High Court judge on Monday pronounced her and her four co-accused guilty of the murder of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton.
She stared straight ahead, apparently emotionless, as Judge Basheer Waglay said that even though she only planned the June 2005 killing, she was as guilty as the men she hired to carry it out.
However, there was a very different reaction — a burst of applause, and shouts of ”yes” — from the packed public gallery in courtroom one.
As Rodrigues and her co-accused left the dock, she leaned over to touch the outstretched hand of her brother, Orlando, but was abruptly pushed back by a court orderly.
Outside the court building, scores of supporters cheered and hugged the Norton family as they emerged from the hearing.
”We are glad for the decision. We just think that she’s a scheming, wicked woman and she should be put away for life,” said the family’s spokesperson, Jordan’s grandfather, Vernon Norton.
Her co-accused — Sipho Mfazwe, Mongezi Bobotyane, Zanethemba Gwada and Bonginkosi Sigenu — should also bear ”the full brunt of the law”.
”I think this evening we will sleep well,” he said.
The family will have to wait until at least next month to hear whether Waglay agrees with them: the judge postponed the case to a three-day period from June 4 for sentencing procedures.
Judgement
Waglay took three days to deliver his 150-page judgement, which had to be interpreted into isiXhosa for the benefit of the four men in the dock.
He dismissed a conspiracy-to-murder charge against all five accused, saying a conviction would be a duplication of the murder charge. However, he found them all guilty of murder, the four men guilty of robbery of the Norton home, and Mfazwe alone guilty of the unlawful possession of a firearm taken from the home.
He found all five not guilty on a charge of unlawful possession of ammunition, and dismissed a charge of intimidation against Rodrigues, saying that there was not enough evidence to show she sent threatening SMSs to her ex-boyfriend Neil Wilson.
Wilson had fathered Jordan in a previous relationship with Natasha Norton, and testified in court that Rodrigues was upset and apparently jealous when she found out.
Waglay said on Monday that Rodrigues told Wilson immediately after the murder that his baby was dead and that she had ”paid R10 000 to make it go away”. Later, she told him: ”What have I done? I’m going to jail.”
”The only inference that can be drawn from this statement is that she paid R10 000 to have baby Jordan killed and knew what she had done was wrong,” Waglay said.
He said this finding was supported by her thumbprints on a waybill left by the hit men, who posed as delivery men to gain entrance to the Nortons’ Cape Town home.
In addition, her co-accused Sigenu had told the court he saw her hand over a parcel for delivery to Mfazwe, and that she paid them afterwards.
Right to silence
None of the other four had chosen to testify to rebut Sigenu’s testimony or other evidence led by the state.
Waglay said while an accused had a right to silence, it could amount to an admission where credible evidence directly implicated an accused.
He found that Bobotyane was the person who actually stabbed six-month-old baby Jordan in the neck, causing her death.
He had harsh words for investigating officer Captain Esmerald Bailey, saying her evidence had to be approached with ”extreme caution and care”.
He said that after Bailey arrested Rodrigues, several sets of fingerprints had to be taken from her because the first two sets got lost. This created the impression the investigation was conducted inefficiently.
Western Cape community safety minister Leonard Ramatlakane welcomed the verdict, saying the court was sending the correct message to those who disregard the value of life, in particular that of children. — Sapa