Jeftic Nebojsa (61), a Serbian man accused of murdering Mr Mile Veljkovic (63) in November 2011, was finally sentenced to life imprisonment at the High Court in Middelburg on Thursday, December 2.
Mr Veljkovic, also a Serbian immigrant, met Nebojsa through a friend.
He offered Nebojsa accommodation for a few months at his house in Geelhout Street, Secunda, which he shared with his then 16-year-old son, Claudio Veljkovic.
Nebojsa came from Serbia to Secunda to look for a job.
Claudio came home from school on the day of the murder, November 2, 2011, and jumped over the wall because the gate was locked.
When he got to their house, the house was also locked.
A school friend was with him.
Claudio looked through the window of the house and saw his father’s body in a pool of blood in the kitchen.
Claudio ran to the main bedroom where he broke a window to get into the house.
Nebojsa, who was packing to leave Secunda that morning when Claudio went to school, was nowhere to be found and as a result, an inquest docket to determine the cause of death was opened by Secunda Police.
Claudio said his father told him that morning to bid Nebojsa farewell and that he must get a lift home from school because his father wants to keep an eye on Nebojsa while he was packing.
Mr Veljkovic’s vehicle, as well as a firearm and contents of the safe, were missing from the house.
Years later, the police noticed this missing vehicle in 2018 after it was involved in an accident near Carnavon in the Northern Cape.
Nebojsa was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident. He was in a coma for several weeks following the accident.
However, the police investigated him and found the firearm and other stolen goods in his possession and arrested him.
He appeared in the Secunda Magistrate’s Court in October 2018 and the case was later moved to the High Court in Middelburg.
Nebojsa pleaded not guilty and the state relied on circumstantial evidence.
Claudio, now in his 20s, was a state witness in the case.
The post mortem report confirmed that Mr Veljkovic died of head injuries.
