Diego Novella fit to stand trial

THE Guatemalan tourist accused of the murder of his American girlfriend in a Camps Bay hotel room in 2015 is not mentally ill and is able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions.

Consequently, Diego Novella is fit to stand trial and the court could consider a plea of diminished responsibility on grounds of drug intoxication.

These were the key findings of the psychiatric report compiled following Novella’s court ordered observation at Valkenberg Hospital last year.

The report was read out during this week’s Cape High Court testimony of Professor Sean Kalinski, one of the three forensic psychiatrists who examined the accused.

Novella, 43, who has pleaded not guilty, is on trial for assaulting and strangling Gabriella Kabrins Alban, 35. Her half-naked body was found in the Camps Bay Retreat Hotel room.

The report sketches the lifestyle of an itinerant, trust-fund kid chequered with liberal and varied drug abuse, stints in rehab and run-ins with the law.

“He began misusing alcohol at 16 years and substances when he was 21 years old,” says the report.

“The substances he has taken include cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, ayahuasca, which he had used as part of a spiritual ritual, peyote and cannabis, which seems to be his drug of choice.”

During observation, Novella described experiencing a period of memory loss before the alleged offence.

“He had not had such experiences before and subsequently has been well. His behaviour in functioning was normal and he impressed as being of superior intelligence.

“Throughout the observation period he was co-operative and provided consistent accounts. No symptoms of mental illness were evident. It is likely that his altered mental state around the period of the alleged offence was caused by intoxication with the combination of sceletium and cannabis oil.”

The report also contains Novella’s description of the hours leading up to Alban’s death.

“At midnight in their hotel room at her suggestion they took sceletium with cannabis oil. He was unable to estimate the quantities they ingested. He had obtained the sceletium in June at a talk he had attended.

“He remembers waking up the following morning when he had an altercation with the deceased and he cancelled a tennis lesson. Thereafter he cannot remember anything until after 2pm.

“His sister received a series of text messages from him that were sent in the early hours of the morning. Some of the messages seemed inappropriate such as photos of a meteorite and a vase of flowers in a hotel lobby.

“His actual last memory seems to be of seeing the deceased through the glass door and noting that she looked like the protagonist in The Exorcist, the movie.

“His next memory thereafter is of re-entering their room. He was able to recall the subsequent events.”

William Booth for the defence, was at pains to impress on the court that Novella, according to the State’s own witness, had diminished criminal capacity. “The extent of that capacity is affected by the intake of the substances. The professor just doesn’t know to what extent.”

The trial will resume in February when it’s expected that the State will close its case and Booth will present his experts.

Murder accused Diego Novella.