A Gcilima man has been convicted and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for the murder of a man who was found lying in a pool of blood by a domestic worker in his Panorama Parade, Margate, flat in March last year.
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The domestic worker had arrived at the flat where Romeo Wilfred Martin (45) lived and found the door locked and the lights on.
She knocked and there was no response. She then went to the reception area and asked for a spare key.
When the woman opened the door she saw blood on the floor and immediately reported this to reception.
The woman and the complex employee went back to the flat together where they found the man lying in a pool of blood in the lounge. He had been covered with a towel.
Police established that a cellphone belonging to Martin had been taken.
Investigating officer, Detective Inspector Siphiwosenkosi Hlongwane and his team tracked the cellphone to a house in Gamalakhe, where the man with the phone claimed to have purchased it from a man working at a restaurant in Ramsgate.
Det-Insp Hlongwane went to the restaurant where the 22-year-old chef who had sold the phone admitted he had been involved in the murder.
After a number of court appearances, Mzwandile Nkomo was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment at the Port Shepstone Regional Court last week.
It was heard in court that Nkomo and Martin had been friends for some time before the murder.
On the night of March 11 and 12 they had been out in Margate.
According to Nkomo, when they returned to Martin’s flat a fight started and Nkomo stabbed Martin three times in the neck. Martin is formerly from Paarl, Western Cape and was working on the South Coast.
“The cellphone assisted us a lot in this case. Without it, the case would have been very difficult,” said Det-Insp Hlongwane.
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