Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Guilty Novella extremely poor, evasive witness, says judge
THE Western Cape High Court this week found Guatemalan Diego Novella guilty of killing Gabriela Kabrins Alban at the Camps Bay Retreat hotel on the morning of July 29, 2015.
Announcing the verdict on Thursday, Judge Vincent Saldanha said he had found Novella “an extremely poor witness, evasive and discursive”.
“I am satisfied beyond any reasonable doubt the attack on Gabriela Kabrins Alban was anger, fuelled by drugs and alcohol,” said Saldanha.
Throughout the trial, it was Novella’s defence that he and the deceased were possessed by a demon on the night of July 28, 2015 when according to him, the couple consumed a cocktail of drugs: cannabis, cannabis oil and sceletium.
Toxicology reports however found no traces of any of the substances in the blood and urine samples of the deceased.
Novella claimed he had been attacked by a demon on the morning of the murder and had defended himself against the “demonic” onslaught.
The state’s case was that Novella strangled Kabrins Alban out of anger and frustration stemming from their “tempestuous” relationship and what he termed her lack of wanting to improve her health.
Kabrins Alban had been diagnosed with Lyme disease and had joined Novella in South Africa to seek treatment.
In his evidence in chief, Novella admitted that he had become increasingly frustrated by Kabrins Alban’s delay in arriving in South Africa, her lack of preparation for her treatment and their squabbles over money.
The trial was filled with drama after nine interpret- ers were used to translate for Novella between English and Spanish, his mother tongue.
Each time Novella said he was unhappy with the interpreter, a new one had to be found.The case took a major turn on July 11 when, during defence attorney William Booth’s heads of argument, Novella announced in court that he had lied.
He was immediately silenced by Saldanha and had to be sent for psychiatric observation to assess his mental state and make sure he was fit to continue with the trial.
It was found Novella had been stockpiling his prescribed Valium tablets instead of taking his medication at Pollsmoor Prison, where he was kept in the hospital section.
Prosecutors Louise Friester- Sampson and Mornay Julius agreed with the court that no weight would be attached to the “outburst” by Novella.
The judge said while the court took into account Novella’s belief in demons, the spiritual world, possession, conspiracy theories and extraterrestrials, he found much of Novella’s testimony in chief was “unfounded claims of fabrication”.
The court also relied heavily on the findings of psychiatrists and psychologists who observed and treated Novella at Valkenberg Hospital days after the murder.
Saldanha highlighted that the panel found that Novella was not mentally ill, he was not certifiable, he was fit to stand trial, he could appreciate the wrongfulness of the act and that the court could possibly consider diminished capacity.
The court found that the defence’s claim of non-pathological criminal capacity did not stand up.
Much was also made about the behaviour of Novella on the morning of the murder.
He had been seen by several hotel staff ordering non-alcoholic drinks, dancing in the lobby, staring at staff and playing air guitar. Judge Saldanha asked: “How does a person whose mind is hijacked by a demon, manage to order a virgin cocktail?”
The court found that Novella’s cognitive ability had been intact at the time of the murder and he could distinguish between right and wrong.
It did, however, find that his conative ability had been impaired, which meant he was unable to act in accordance with the knowledge of right and wrong.
This past week saw several biblical references made to the inability of the defence to cast doubt on Novella’s guilt, with Saldanha saying the defence had reached its Damascus moment.
The trial will resume on August 7 for arguments in aggravation and mitigation of sentence.