Panayiotou found guilty of killing his wife Jayde
WIFE-KILLER Christopher Panayiotou could go to prison for the rest of his life – a realisation which quickly sank in yesterday as Judge Dayalin Chetty found him guilty of masterminding Jayde’s murder.
“Guilty, guilty, guilty” – the words Jayde’s family had waited so long to hear echoed across the packed courtroom, eliciting clapping and cheers from the gallery.
Panayiotou’s face reddened and his family, seated directly behind him, began to cry.
In a mammoth judgment which lasted much of the day yesterday, – remarkably also Panayiotou’s 31st birthday – Chetty convicted him of murder, while hitman Sinethemba Nemembe, 28, was found guilty of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances and Zolani Sibeko, 35, found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.
After the judgment, Jayde’s younger sister, Toni Inggs, said her family was elated with the outcome.
“My sister can finally rest and we truly hope that they get the time they deserve with sentencing.”
Inggs said she was overwhelmed and forever grateful to the strangers that had now become their heroes.
The men will be sentenced on November 17.
Defence Advocate Terry Price SC has already indicated that he intends to bring an application for leave to appeal the conviction.
Jayde, 29, went missing from outside her Kabega Park home on April 21 2015. Her body was found in KwaNobuhle the next day.
Chetty said an inference could properly be made from the gun residue found on her hand that in her final moments she had begged for mercy.
“That act of supplication, however, elicited a bullet to her head. The medical and ballistic findings compel the conclusion that this was an execution-style murder.”
The breakthrough in unmasking the key figures in her murder came on April 27, when Captain Willie Mayi, the head of the SA Police Service’s vehicle hijacking team, received a call from an informer.
This ultimately led him to middleman Luthando Siyoni.
Siyoni’s involvement in the conspiracy to murder Jayde – and his testimony – made him paradoxically the nucleus of Panayiotou’s defence and a key witness for the state.