Man accused of stabbing neighbour to learn fate
JUDGMENT in the murder trial of Leon Lourens Coetzee, accused of allegedly stabbing and killing his neighbour at the Green Acres Estate, Montana, Pretoria, over a Whatapp message, was yesterday reserved by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.
The altercation was believed to have its roots in a message, allegedly authored by Coetzee’s wife, on the estate’s Whatsapp group, referring to black residents as pigs.
The court finally heard the heads of arguments by the state and Coetzee’s legal counsel on the altercation, which allegedly led to the murder of Thembinkosi Thabethe on April 26, 2021.
Although the state failed to have Coetzee charged with premeditated murder, it argued that he ought to be convicted for murder according to the evidence presented.
According to the state, Coetzee was guilty in that the evidence showed he had allegedly pursued Thabethe for 95 metres from the gate of his property.
The state told the court that Coetzee, on seeing a muscular male standing at this gate, with the possibility of a scuffle ensuing, still decided to open the gate and threaten him with a knife.
Secondly, the state highlighted that it could not be ignored that Coetzee had pursued Thabethe after inflicting the first and second stab wounds, which showed the intent of killing him.
“Evidence shows that after the second stabbing, the accused continued to pursue the deceased for an estimated 45m from the second stabbing, and it is clear that he had a clear intention to finish off the deceased.
“He should have foreseen the possibility of the deceased fighting back since he was already stabbed twice, but reconciled to pursue regardless,” submitted the state.
“The accused pursued the deceased continuously and stabbed an unarmed man on three occasions, even though he never posed a threat to anyone. All the stab wounds were directed at the chest area, and it is clear the accused wanted to kill the deceased.”
Coetzee’s counsel, however, requested for him to be acquitted on the charge of murder as it indicated that he had provided the court with a “plausible and reasonable” version of how the deceased sustained all three injuries.
Coetzee pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder and submitted a plea of self-defence.
According to the defence’s version, Thabethe arrived at his home around 9pm with the intention to confront Coetzee’s wife and proceeded to “verbally insult” and assault the husband.
The defence argued that it was, in fact, Thabethe who had aggressively approached Coetzee’s next-door neighbour when he attempted to diffuse the situation and calmed him down.
According to Coetzee’s plea explanation,
he informed the court that after Thabethe focused on the neighbour, he then opened his electrical ate and went to its edge shouting to him to leave while pointing a knife at him.
On seeing this, Thabethe allegedly approached Coetzee aggressively and shouted “Am not f ****** scared of you, you white racist”, and proceeded to slap him with an open hand, following which a scuffle ensued.
During the scuffle, Thabethe allegedly tried to disarm Coetzee, which resulted in the knife “clicking” on the chest as he tried to disarm him.
Coetzee then alleged that a second attempt to disarm him was made by Thabethe, which resulted in the second cut on the right upper shoulder as a result of the pulling.
Coetzee said that a few metres away, on feeling safe enough to turn around and walk back home, he heard footsteps and someone screaming, “leave him alone”. He turned to find Thabethe attempting to hit him with a large rock.
Coetzee allegedly blocked the rock and proceeded to stab Thabethe again in the chest, this time with his left hand.
The counsel poked holes in the state’s witnesses’ testimonies and submitted to the court that the state’s witnesses were not only of poor quality but also lacked credibility, to the extent that both their versions should be rejected as unreliable and false.
According to the defence counsel, the objective facts and the injuries suffered by the deceased clearly corroborated Coetzee’s version, that he was injured twice while attempting to disarm him, and stabbed once in self-defence.
The matter was postponed to August 26.