Suspect rattled by crime scene pictures
IN A SECOND frustrating day for the Kabrins family, the father of Gabriela Kabrins Alban was not called to testify in the Western Cape High Court. Howdy Kabrins was due to be called as the first State witness in the trial against Guatemalan murder accused Diego Novella, which started on Monday.
The family flew in from the US last week to attend court proceedings, but instead both of the 39-year-old American marketing executive’s parents have spent hours waiting outside court.
Judge Vincent Saldanha insisted that Novella go through all the crime scene photographs and documents, contained in two files, before proceeding with witness testimony. He wanted to make sure Novella was satisfied with admissions handed in by his defence lawyer, William Booth.
Novella was clearly rattled by the fact that the photographs become public documents once handed in as evidence, and may be published. He asked what the benefit of publishing them would be.
Judge Saldanha said: “Documents are part of the public record. But the media must exercise extreme restraint.”
The case was adjourned to give Booth time to go through the exhibit bundles with his client. Novella has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder.
In his plea statement, he said he had been in an abnormal mental state after having taken hallucinogenic substances. These were listed as sceletium, dronabinol (a prescription drug) and cannabis.
Novella was arrested on July 29, 2015, after his girlfriend’s body was found in the hotel room they were sharing at the luxurious Camps Bay Retreat Boutique Hotel.
The hotel room was in complete disarray. She had suffered blunt-force trauma to her face, had signs of manual strangulation as well as defensive wounds on her arms.
Novella was arrested later that day. He was sent for psychiatric evaluation at Valkenberg Hospital, where a panel found he had diminished responsibility from drug intoxication. Novella, who comes from a prominent and wealthy Gautemalan family, said that Alban’s death had devastated him.