Shocking not guilty verdict for one accused in Vygeboom farm attack

NELSPRUIT – A shocking twist in the Vygeboom farm-attack trial when one of the accused was acquitted of all charges, due to the state failing to prove that his DNA samples were not tampered with. The verdict occurred in the Pretoria Circuit High Court in the city on Tuesday.

This, despite the accused’s DNA sample matching a blood sample found at the scene of the crime which an expert said in court was a one-in-a-trillion chance of a match.

Judge Mmanoa Teffo found Mr Thomas Nyathi not guilty on all counts and Aaron Nkosi guilty of attacking a couple on their farm in the Vygeboom area near Badplaas on December 17, 2010.

Nkosi was found guilty of the murder of Mr Johannes Hendrik Schoeman (86), and kidnapping and armed robbery.

Previously the defence attorney for Nyathi, Mr Lawrence Manzini, claimed that the blood evidence found at the scene linking his client to it, was the only thing the state had on the accused, as Schoeman’s widow, Ms Gudren Schoeman (67), had first stated she could not identify her attackers and then changed her statement.

Teffo agreed that Schoeman’s testimony in identifying her attackers was not credible as she had only identified them in the dock.

She also reiterated that the state had failed in giving evidence of the chain of events of when the sample was collected from the accused to it appearing in court.

Teffo said the evidence against Nkosi, due to the pointing out with police, put him at the scene of the crime, therefore she had found him guilty on all counts.

Schoeman had testified in court during the trial that, before the attack, she went to bed on the second floor of their home at about 21:00, while her husband had slept on the first floor.

She was later awoken by the smell of something burning. She got up, looked around the house and heard her husband snoring when she passed his room. Schoeman then went to the kitchen and when she returned to check on her husband, two men attacked her in his room. She said one of them covered her mouth with his hand when she tried to scream.

According to Schoeman, her husband was unconscious at the time, but still alive.“They started demanding cash and weapons. I denied I had any money or weapons, which was true. They hit me continuously with their fists and one of them held a rusty knife to my neck.”

She claimed the suspects had pulled her pants down, but didn’t rape her. The men then demanded her ATM card and cash limit to withdraw money. Schoeman said that was when the one attackers took her husband’s tracksuit pants and both men used it to strangled him.

They then loaded her into the back of her husband’s vehicle and drove off. The men then drove to Belfast and when they got to an ATM, they asked for her PIN and then withdrew R2 000.

She stated in court that the whole time she had kept her head down in the car. On their way back, the vehicle had had an accident whereby the two men fled the scene and Schoeman was able to obtain help.

Schoeman, who was in court for the verdict, could not give comment to the media as she was suffering from shock regarding the outcome.