Another week behind bars for mom’s alleged killer

The formal bail application brought by the man accused of brutally murdering single mother Shenice Jonathan has been postponed again.

Quinton Scheepers will spend at least another week behind bars while the magistrate presiding over the matter remains on sick leave.

The case was set to continue yesterday with the cross-examination of investigating officer Warrant Officer Neil Hendricks.

Instead, the matter was postponed to September 23.

Scheepers, 20, brought an application for bail earlier this month after he was arrested at the Gqeberha magistrate’s court while attending to another court matter.

He has been in custody since August 26.

Jonathan’s mutilated body, with at least 47 stab wounds to the abdomen, chest and face, was discovered by a passerby on the morning of August 7 2020 in a field near Thornton Street, Schauderville.

She had last been seen by her family the night before when she left home to visit a friend nearby.

The state is opposed to Scheepers’ release on bail given the severity of the offence.

In his evidence in chief, Hendricks told the court that Jonathan had been seen arguing with Scheepers a few days before her murder, near the spot where her body was found.

Scheepers brought the application for bail claiming he had co-operated with police when he gave them a DNA sample in the days after Jonathan’s murder and that he needed to be with his pregnant girlfriend.

A second person allegedly involved in Jonathan’s murder, Eustance “Chicken” Hahn, was murdered in January.

Scheepers was attending that murder trial when he was arrested.