Murder witness confident of shooters’ identity
A witness to an alleged hit-style murder was adamant yesterday that she knew who the shooters were because she had seen them numerous times before.
The woman, who cannot be named as she is in witness protection, told the Gqeberha high court that she saw Maxwell Muller and Emmanuel Sampson shoot her relative in broad daylight after the two climbed out a taxi in Reginald Road, Helenvale, on November 24 2017.
They then allegedly turned their firearms on her and shot at her while she ran for cover.
The woman’s relative, Methwill Witbooi, died on the scene.
Two teenagers, aged 16 and 17 at the time, also escaped unharmed.
Witbooi and the teenagers were state witnesses in a separate murder case Muller was allegedly involved in.
The woman testified yesterday that she had been standing on the corner of Reginald and Rennecke roads when she noticed a taxi pull up.
She said she saw Muller and Sampson get out the taxi and immediately open fire.
She said she could clearly see them from where she was standing and that it was Sampson who allegedly fired shots at her. In January, Sampson pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including one count of murder, two of attempted murder and two of contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
This, after the high court ruled that he was fit to stand trial after a lengthy mental evaluation at the Fort England Psychiatric Hospital in Makhanda.
Muller, 22, pleaded not guilty to all the charges at the start of the trial in November 2019.
He was sentenced in October 2019 to an effective 25 years for his involvement in the November 2017 murder of two-year-old Haakeem Baartman, who was shot in the head by a stray bullet while he played in the front yard of his family’s Helenvale home.
The trial continues.