Montecasino case of murder: final arguments in June

POLOKWANE – The case against former resident of the city, Maruschca Robinson who is a former employee of Lollipop Lounge, and her ex-boyfriend Jean-Pierre Malan, was postponed in April by the South Gauteng high court for final arguments and judgment to take place on June 22 and 23.

Robinson and Malan were arrested days within each other in 2013 after the partly decomposed body of Dustan Blom was discovered in the boot of his vehicle in the Montecasino parking area in September that year.

The accused are charged with murder, robbery and defrauding Blom of hundreds of thousands of rand. Both pleaded not guilty of murder on April 16.

Robinson pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and admitted being present when the body was taken and dropped at Montecasino.

She also said she wiped Blom’s blood from the floor in his home.

Malan pleaded guilty on nine counts of fraud, attempting to defeat the ends of justice and being in possession of five identity documents not belonging to him. Both admitted to having used Blom’s cards buying goods and to drawing R27 500 from his account.

On April 20 the court was provided with SMS message evidence from Robinson’s phone.

This provided evidence of the two accused plotting against Blom, with whom Robinson was staying at the time. Another SMS message read in court, sent on September 18 2013 (the day Blom was murdered) from Robinson’s phone read:

“He is going to get the cops here. Come here so we can g him up.” The “g” is referring to a drug, Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, a central nervous system depressant, which they used to give to Blom so he could sleep while they used his card to draw money.

On April 21 a forensic pathologist, Dr Shirley Moeng, gave evidence that Blom was strangled as a bone in his neck was broken and his tongue was against his teeth, as was the case in strangling cases.

Robinson’s attorney, Jesse Penton, said she was not strong enough to break a bone in Blom’s neck, but Malan’s attorney, JP Marais said his client saw Blom in a pool of blood and suggested that Blom was drugged and unconscious when he was killed.

Other than the evidence of the two accused and sms messages sent between the accused, judge Delize Smith also heard evidence from another former Lollipop Lounge employee and friend of Blom who remained unidentified before court, a taxi driver, a pathologist, a toxicology expert, and CCTV footage taken on the night of Blom’s death in which the two accused were laughing and flirting and withdrew R15 000 from Blom’s account.

Before the case was postponed, prosecutor Saais van Zyl asked Malan yet again if he murdered Blom, as the 110kg Blom was too big to have been strangled by Robinson.

Malan again maintained he did not and that Robinson gave Blom an overdose of drugs, which killed him.