MUST READ: Cold case murderer convicted after wife turns state witness
PARKTOWN NORTH – Justice has been served for a Parktown North resident who was brutally murdered and left in a pool of blood more than a decade ago.
Faizel Thabo Monegi was found guilty of murder, robbery and escaping from lawful custody at the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court.
He was handed a 35-year prison sentence; 25 years for murder, five for robbery and five for escaping from lawful custody.
On a Friday night in January 2002, Monegi and his wife went to a 3rd Avenue home in Parktown North, where the owner let them in as he was familiar with them. Monegi is alleged to have attacked the owner by striking him with a blunt object on his head and further strangling him to death with an electric cord.
The 56-year-old home owner’s body, which was lying in a pool of blood, was found by family members the following day. The house had been ransacked and several valuable items were missing, police said.
Parkview police found crucial evidence, which included fingerprints that linked Monegi to the crime scene. He was arrested two days later while trying to sell some of the stolen items to a Hillbrow pawn shop.
After being remanded in custody after his first appearance in court, he bizarrely managed to escape from custody at a follow-up court appearance in April 2002. He assumed another detainee’s identity, who was arrested for traffic offences. His wife paid R500 bail for him, he was released under someone else’s identity.
Monegi and his wife then went on the run but were tracked down in 2011, nine years later. Newly-appointed investigation officer on the case, Detective Sergeant Roy Davids tracked them down in Durban where they were arrested and returned to Johannesburg.
His wife turned state witness in exchange for a lesser sentence for being an accomplice to murder and also for aiding her husband to escape from lawful custody.
“We salute Detective Sergeant Roy Davids for his dedication in bringing closure to this case,” said Parkview police spokesperson Sergeant Lloyd Ramovha.
All Monegi’s sentences will run concurrently, which means an effective 25-year prison term.
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