Toddler murder-accused Melvin Volkwyn to hear his fate next month

JUDGMENT in the murder trial of Melvin Volkwyn, who is accused of killing toddler Orderick Lucas, is expected next month.

Yesterday at the Western Cape High Court, as both parties submitted their heads of argument, the State, represented by prosecutor Mornay Julius, averred that the defence was focusing on “immaterial inconsistencies” and these were not speaking to the “crux of the case”.

However, the defence in its argument submitted that the State had not proven its case of murder beyond reasonable doubt and slated the credibility of State witnesses, discrepancies around time frames and the probability of Volkwyn having caused the death of 1-year-old Orderick.

Julius submitted that, owing to an arm injury “which the court will never know the truth about” and the incident of tooth extraction, it was probable that Volkwyn could have harmed Orderick while the toddler was in his care.

“There are corroborations and substantiations for the truthfulness of the evidence when it comes to the crucial questions before this court. It is not far-fetched that Volkwyn could have been intentional in hurting the deceased.

“This court is not even required to rule out the question of prior violent conduct of the accused,” said Julius.

It was “highly improbable” that Volkwyn handed Orderick back to his mother, Davidene, on the Monday morning before Orderick’s disappearance, Julius said.

“The only logical conclusion is that Volkwyn did something to Orderick which caused him to die and hid the body of Orderick in a stormwater drain,” said Julius.

Defence counsel Susan Kuun, after pointing out a number of discrepancies of the timeline and timeframes in testimony by State witnesses, said the evidence before court was “mutually destructive versions”.

She said the onus rested on the court to make credibility findings of witnesses, adding that Lucas was “not a credible witness”.

“Davidene, Kounkou Dziendelet (Orderick’s father) and Cornelia Scheepers (Orderick’s maternal grandmother) had an interest in telling court that Volkwyn kept the child and lied to court because they do not want to be held criminally responsible as they knew they were contravening a court order.

“The grandmother was not supposed to give the child to Lucas and Dziendelet …

“The State said Volkwyn had plans to murder Orderick.

“If he had such plans, why would he tell everybody the child is with him?” said Kuun.

She further argued that Volkwyn should not be convicted of murder as the cause of death had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt and the State had not proven that Volkwyn caused Orderick’s death.

The matter was postponed to July 21 for judgment.