Life term for killer
Family has closure for slain Bianca, but ‘life will never be the same’
WHEN Christopher Houston applies for parole, Orsen Parsons will be there to oppose his application.
Parsons made this vow at the Durban High Court yesterday after Houston and Darryl Murrison were sentenced for the murder of his wife, Bianca.
While Murrison received a life term for the murder, Houston received 10 years for being an accessory to murder after the fact and, depending on his behaviour in prison, could be eligible for release on parole in three years.
Bianca Parsons died after being shot in the back – in full view of her 3-yearold daughter – at a garage in Wentworth last February, in what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Her murder was intended to be a revenge hit on Joseph Errol Ernest and his son, Juade, who are alleged to have killed Houston’s relative, Llewellyn Edwards, in 2017.
Murrison was also found guilty of attempted murder and being in possession of a gun, for which he was sentenced to five years’ and 15 years’ imprisonment respectively. All his sentences are to run concurrently.
Parsons said the end of the trial and the sentences brought a sense of relief to the family, but would change nothing in their lives.
“We are still going to be missing Bianca; nothing will change that. We have a sense of closure now, but we still lost someone special to us. We are no longer complete as a family because she completed us,” he said.
Earlier in court, while leading evidence in aggravation of sentence, Parsons said his wife was kind, loving, selfless, and a good mother and wife.
Wherever his daughter and wife were, there was always laughter, he said.
“There was never a dull moment; there were always laughs,” he said.
Parsons had earlier told the court the little girl had celebrated her fourth birthday last week, the first without her mother.
The family had endured sleepless nights days leading to Christmas and the child’s birthday as she “yearned” for her mother, constantly asking for her.
“Times like Christmas and birthdays are not the same without her,” he said.
In mitigation of sentence, Advocate Jay Naidoo said Murrison, who had no formal education, had relapsed to his old life of drugs at the time of the murder.
“This was after having had a short period of some sort of care, guidance as well as social moral regeneration under the wing of Llewellyn. His circumstances at that stage didn’t allow him to properly manage his rage and grief,” he said.
Naidoo said Murrison was mindful of the fact that he had taken an innocent life and was remorseful for this.
“He had intended to express to the deceased’s family his remorse for their loss, but instructed me that he would not be able to and I have been asked to make this submission from the bar,” he said.
Naidoo said Houston had made an error in judgement on the night of the crime.
“It doesn’t make it right; it was an error in judgement,” he said.
In passing sentence, Judge Esther Steyn said the men had shown no remorse during the trial to the extent that neither had taken the stand even in mitigation of sentence.
“This shows that neither of you can make the claim to show remorse... The assistance rendered by Houston to Murrison was not insignificant,” she said.
Steyn said Houston’s actions had consequences, like the murder weapon never being found.
The judge applauded the police who investigated the murder, saying “this crime would have become just another crime statistic” without their swift action.