Massacre suspect opts for silence

IN the face of accusations that he was more than just a passive, captive and unwilling spectator to the murder of eight people, farm massacre suspect Gavin Beukes on Friday chose to exercise his right to remain silent in his trial in the High Court in Windhoek.

Beukes (27) would not testify in his own defence and would not call any witnesses to testify in his defence either, his lawyer, Titus Mbaeva, told Judge President Petrus Damaseb.
Beukes himself confirmed this decision to the Judge President. With that, Mbaeva also closed the case in Beukes’s defence, without presenting any evidence to the court in the defence case.
Mbaeva made the announcement after Beukes’s brother, self-admitted multiple killer Sylvester Beukes (23), had left the witness stand from where he had been testifying over the course of some 10 and a half days.
Sylvester Beukes’s defence lawyer, Titus Ipumbu, also closed his client’s case without presenting further evidence to the court.
The two brothers were at farm Kareeboomvloer between Rehoboth and Kalkrand when eight people were killed at the farm on the weekend of March 4 to 5 2005.
Sylvester Beukes has told the Judge President that he killed all eight people. While these killings were taking place, his brother was tied up on a small veranda outside the kitchen entrance door of the farmhouse, he is claiming.
Sylvester Beukes has also told the Judge President that the murders were the result of a plan by Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (31), the son of the owners of the farm, Justus and Elzabé Erasmus, to have his parents and his sister murdered so that he could not be cut out of his parents’ will.
The Erasmus couple were also slain at the farm.
‘Shorty’ Erasmus is one of the two co-accused on trial with the Beukes brothers. He is denying the charges.
His defence lawyer, Petrie Theron, told the Judge President on Friday that Erasmus will testify in his own defence. He will also call witnesses to testify in his defence, but will still decide which witnesses will be called, Theron said.
With Gavin Beukes’s decision to remain silent, two of the four people on trial in connection with the massacre have now opted not to testify in their own defence.
Before Sylvester Beukes started testifying, the first accused, Rehoboth area resident Stoney Neidel (31), closed the case in his defence without going into the witness box to give evidence.
A large quantity of goods stolen from the farm after the killings were later found at Neidel’s house at Rehoboth and at farm Areb west of the town, where Neidel is farming. The goods were stored there by the Beukes brothers.
Gavin Beukes’s decision not to testify was communicated to the court only a day after Judge President Damaseb told Beukes – in a ruling on a bail application that was turned down on Thursday – that he had a strong case to answer to at this stage.
In his bail ruling the Judge President noted that the evidence so far indicated that at every available opportunity Beukes had had to disassociate himself from his brother and to raise the alarm about the events at the farm, he failed to do so.
He further noted that according to other evidence, high-velocity blood spatter was found on the shoes that Beukes wore at the farm when the murders were committed. The court has been told that this showed that Beukes was close to the place where at least one of the people murdered at the farm was shot dead – while he and his brother are claiming that he was tied up away from the scenes of the shootings.
The four charged men are scheduled to return to court on January 22, when a date should be set for the continuation of their trial. The trial started on March 1 last year with all four accused men pleading not guilty to 15 charges, including eight counts of murder.
The Beukes brothers remain in custody, while Neidel and Erasmus are both free on bail.

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