Van Zyl pleads not guilty to father’s murder

RYNO Van Zyl, the 21-year-old man charged last year with murdering his father at the family’s home, pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

He was making his fourth court appearance since his arrest on the morning of June 27 last year. In a written plea explanation read out by defence attorney Jan Wessels, Van Zyl acknowledged that the bullet that had killed his father, 45-year-old Louis Van Zyl, had been discharged from a gun that was in his possession at the time.Police were called to the Van Zyls’ home in Windhoek’s Eros suburb at around 11h00 on that Wednesday morning, and reported discovering the body of the elder Van Zyl with a bullet wound to the back of the head.His son was arrested on the premises, and was granted N$3 000 bail during his first court appearance the next day.In his statement read yesterday, Van Zyl said that his family had a known history of extreme violence.He recounted a number of events in the family’s past where he said either his own or his mother’s life had been in danger due to the behaviour of his deceased father.One incident, which he said happened when he was 14 years old, apparently involved his father trying to kill him with a hunting rifle.The incident resulted in a gun battle between his parents, he said, and only ended when his father was wounded in the leg.He had on various occasions been forced to flee his father’s house, Van Zyl added, and at one point had to cross the border to South Africa in order to avoid a life-threatening confrontation.It was also on record, he stated, that Louis Van Zyl had been diagnosed as a psychopath by the Oranje Psychiatric Hospital in South Africa years before the events of the day of his death.On the day of the murder, he said, his father had attacked his mother during an argument over a domestic animal.Recalling the final moments of his father’s life, Van Zyl said that he recalled his mother being throttled on the ground, and that he heard her pleading for help while struggling for her breath.He then decided to use a “duly licensed 9 mm calibre in my possession” to fire a warning shot in an attempt to stop the attack on his mother.While he could not ascertain whether or not his father had a gun in his holster during this time, the young Van Zyl said that he believed this to be the case at the time.The next thing his client remembered, Wessels explained to the court, was smoke coming from the firearm he was holding.He had no recollection of any shots fired, or of how many, or whether he had been the one responsible.The case was then postponed until April 10 this year for the Prosecutor General to make a decision on its future course.Van Zyl’s bail was extended until then.In a written plea explanation read out by defence attorney Jan Wessels, Van Zyl acknowledged that the bullet that had killed his father, 45-year-old Louis Van Zyl, had been discharged from a gun that was in his possession at the time.Police were called to the Van Zyls’ home in Windhoek’s Eros suburb at around 11h00 on that Wednesday morning, and reported discovering the body of the elder Van Zyl with a bullet wound to the back of the head.His son was arrested on the premises, and was granted N$3 000 bail during his first court appearance the next day.In his statement read yesterday, Van Zyl said that his family had a known history of extreme violence.He recounted a number of events in the family’s past where he said either his own or his mother’s life had been in danger due to the behaviour of his deceased father.One incident, which he said happened when he was 14 years old, apparently involved his father trying to kill him with a hunting rifle.The incident resulted in a gun battle between his parents, he said, and only ended when his father was wounded in the leg.He had on various occasions been forced to flee his father’s house, Van Zyl added, and at one point had to cross the border to South Africa in order to avoid a life-threatening confrontation.It was also on record, he stated, that Louis Van Zyl had been diagnosed as a psychopath by the Oranje Psychiatric Hospital in South Africa years before the events of the day of his death.On the day of the murder, he said, his father had attacked his mother during an argument over a domestic animal.Recalling the final moments of his father’s life, Van Zyl said that he recalled his mother being throttled on the ground, and that he heard her pleading for help while struggling for her breath.He then decided to use a “duly licensed 9 mm calibre in my possession” to fire a warning shot in an attempt to stop the attack on his mother.While he could not ascertain whether or not his father had a gun in his holster during this time, the young Van Zyl said that he believed this to be the case at the time.The next thing his client remembered, Wessels explained to the court, was smoke coming from the firearm he was holding.He had no recollection of any shots fired, or of how many, or whether he had been the one responsible.The case was then postponed until April 10 this year for the Prosecutor General to make a decision on its future course.Van Zyl’s bail was extended until then.

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