Pathologist’s report submitted to court in J-Bay murder accused’s ongoing bid for bail
A specialist forensic pathologist’s report was led during Jeffreys Bay murder accused Donovan Wolf’s protracted quest for bail yesterday.
Wolf — still in custody after gunning down Clyde Stuurman in Jeffreys Bay in February — claims he acted in self-defence.
According to a report by Prof Gert Saayman, submitted to the Humansdorp Magistrate’s Court yesterday, the tract of the gunshot injury to Stuurman’s chest, which grazed the heart and led to excessive blood loss, could be seen as a shot being fired in an uncontrolled manner or struggle as alleged by Wolf.
While Wolf claims he only shot at Stuurman after he came charging towards him, the state believes the murder was premeditated.
Yesterday, Wolf submitted two reports in response to further evidence led by the state before his application for leave to appeal against his bail dismissal can be heard in the high court in Gqeberha.
Saayman said a wound to the back of Stuurman’s head was consistent with what may be expected if a person were to be hit over the head with the butt of a pistol.
The second report by forensic ballistics expert Jacobus Steyl, who conducted a control test to see how far Wolf had to have been from Stuurman when the shot was fired, found that a fixed distance could not be concluded.
Steyl’s report indicated that gunshot residue could be found on the clothing of a gunshot victim if the gun was fired within a metre distance between the shooter and the victim.
However, Steyl said this did not factor in the type of clothing worn, the type of ammunition used, the manufacturer or the firearm.
In February, magistrate Una Rhodes dismissed Wolf’s application for bail, finding that his version of events could not be seen as being reasonably possibly true.
She said he had failed to show exceptional circumstances to permit his release from custody.
Wolf, 31, maintained that there was a struggle between him and Stuurman, 26, when he found him in the bushy area along the R102 after he had followed him there.
According to Wolf, he was acting on instinct when he left his Wavecrest home on the night of February 10 after his wife, Jodi, had told him about a suspicious man wearing a black hoodie walking in the open plot behind their house.
Wolf admitted that he grabbed his gun, jumped in his bakkie and went looking for the person.
After noticing movement in the bushes next to the R102, Wolf entered the bushes with his firearm at the ready.
He claimed Stuurman appeared from behind a bush with a knife in his hand and when he ordered him to stop Stuurman allegedly lunged at him. A struggle then allegedly ensued and the gun went off, which, according to a postmortem report, went straight through Stuurman’s chest.
After being denied bail, Wolf approached the high court in Gqeberha to appeal against Rhodes’s decision.
This led to the state bringing an application to have further evidence led before the appeal could be heard.
Judge Elna Revelas ordered that the new evidence, in the form of two statements by paramedics who had attended the scene and a report by a police ballistics expert, be submitted to Rhodes before the appeal could be heard.
In his second replying affidavit, Wolf alleged, for the first time, that after members of the neighbourhood watch and the police arrived at the scene, a second person jumped out the bushes and ran away.
According to Wolf, the person was pursued by the police but they returned empty-handed 20 minutes later.
The matter was closed and referred back to the high court for Wolf’s appeal to be heard.
A date has not yet been set.