A suspect in Bellavista was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing a firearm in 2016 and tampering with essential services in 2019.
Docket one: On January 20, 2016, at 11pm the complainant was at home in Bellavista. He went to sleep but woke up when he smelt smoke.
When he went to check to see if the keys for his safe were in the place he had left them, he did not find them. His firearm was stolen and his brother-in-law disappeared that night. The complainant went to the station and a case of theft was opened.
The complainant’s firearm serial number was circulated.
Docket two: On April 24, 2019, at 6am members of the JMPD were doing patrols in the Booysens area.
One of the members was driving in Kliprivier Drive when he saw two coloured men sitting on the left-hand side of the road, under the pedestrian crossing bridge next to the lamp pole. The officer looked closer at the suspects and noticed something suspicious.
He approached the suspects and they ran away.
The officer caught one suspect and took him to the street pole where wires in the lamppost had been cut. He searched the suspect and the area around the lamp post and noticed tools, including a spade, wheel spanner, and a garden fork, on the ground.
The suspect was then arrested and detained at Booysens SAPS.
Capt Lorraine van Emmerik, communications officer at Booysens SAPS, said the dockets were given to Sgt Edmond Rangwanasha to investigate. Rangwanasha found that the suspect arrested could also be linked to the first crime committed in 2016. All outstanding information was obtained and placed in court for a final decision.
“The suspect was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for both crimes and was also declared unfit to possess a firearm. The sentence combined is five years for the theft of firearm and 10 years for tampering with essential services (cutting wires from a street light).
“Thank you Rangwanasha for obtaining this successful conviction,” she said.
