No DNA evidence linking accused to Brendin Horner murder, court hears
The investigating officer in the Brendin Horner murder case told the Senekal Magistrate's Court on Tuesday that there is no DNA evidence, at this stage, linking the accused to the crime.
Investigator Pieter Myburgh conceded, when cross-examined by advocate Joseph Kgoelenya on behalf of accused number one, Sekwetje Mahlamba (32), that the bloodstained clothes and knife that were found inside a freezer located at Mahlamba’s alleged shack, are still undergoing forensic testing.
This implies the only evidence the state has at this early stage against Mahlamba and his co-accused, 44-year-old Sekola Matlaletsa, hinges on the testimony of eyewitnesses who allegedly overheard the duo confess to “stabbing a white man after he gave them problems” at a local tavern.
Mahlamba’s legal counsel maintained in his cross-examination that the state’s evidence against his client is weak and circumstantial at best.
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Myburgh vehemently refuted the advocates’ assertion, adding that the corroborating eyewitnesses' testimonies came from three different individuals who were all there at the tavern on the night that the confessions were made, but had their statements taken down by authorities at different times in the aftermath of the murder.
The defense further disputed that the shack in which the blood-stained clothes were found stashed in a freezer, belongs to accused number one.
They maintained it was his brother’s shack.
The state believes that the release of the duo on bail will result in outrage and unrest in the area.