Sentencing of Rohde set for December 5

Sentencing proceedings for convicted murderer Jason Rohde were postponed yesterday to allow for preparation and presentation of the defence’s case for mitigation of sentence.

The postponement was to December 5.

Rohde’s two twin daughters are among the witnesses set to testify in the Western Cape High Court where the former CEO of Lew Geffen/Sotheby’s International Realty was earlier this month found guilty of murdering his wife, Susan Rohde, and staging her suicide in July 2016 at a Stellenbosch hotel.

Susan Rohde’s body was found with an electronic cord wrapped around her neck hanging from a hook behind the bathroom door of the room she shared with her husband on July 24, 2016, at the Spier Wine Estate Hotel.

On November 8, the court found him guilty of her murder.

“On November 8, the court postponed the matter for sentencing and at the time I indicated that I felt that approximately two weeks would be sufficient time for the preparation and presentation of the defence’s case,” defence advocate Graham van der Spuy told the court.

“Numerous issues have risen and problems have occurred and it has become apparent that I completely underestimated some of these,“he said.

Van der Spuy said that on Tuesday afternoon Dr Deidre Abrahams, an expert in the field of femicide and intimate partner homicide, gave the defence a copy of the [pathology] report as well as various articles and annexures. The defence needed time to study these documents, he added.

“We have not had an opportunity to study those. We need time to do that,” he said.

He also argued for time to discuss the report as well as accompanying articles and annexures with the defence’s experts.

Dr Abrahams is the chief pathologist in the Western Cape government’s Winelands and West Coast regions.

Van der Spuy had accused her of being biased and unconstitutional during cross-examination in the Rohde case.

The defence also said that it needed more time to consult with Rohde’s three daughters because, among other reasons, the younger twin daughters were writing their matric examinations.

The court granted the request for postponement. – ANA

We have not had an opportunity to study those. We need time to do that. Graham van der Spuy Defence advocate