Durban — In handing a life sentence to a woman who hatched and executed a plan to kill her husband of 10 years with her lesbian lover, the court described the woman as deceitful, dangerous and persuasive.
On Thursday, Analidia Dias Bella Dosantos was handed a life sentence by Acting Judge Murray Pitman in the Durban High Court for the murder of her husband and father of her child Mark Buttle, who was found in his car with 53 stab wounds to his upper body.
Dosantos plotted with her lover Teagan Allison Brown to kill her husband and the plan was executed with the help of Brown’s neighbour Charmaine Margaret Khumalo in 2018.
An insurance policy was the motive behind the murder, coupled with the fact that Dosantos, who was 41 at the time of the murder in 2018, was alleged to have been having an affair with Brown, who was 25.
Following the murder, Dosantos while on Napdale Road allegedly parted ways with the other women, going to a nearby house where she reported that she had been with her husband and they had been hijacked.
She reported the false hijacking and kidnapping case to the police. Even though she had moved out of the marital home, she had lured Buttle to the murder scene under the pretext of rekindling their marriage.
Judge Pitman sentenced Khumalo to 18 years for her part in the murder, while Dosantos was handed a further five years for defeating the ends of justice.
Although Dosantos was found guilty, she maintained her innocence through to sentencing proceedings, claiming that she wanted to work on the marriage.
Judge Pitman said: “I have no doubt that accused three (Dosantos) was the mastermind and main player, accused two (Brown) played a role. I don’t accept that Dosantos at the time of the murder wanted to rekindle her relationship with the deceased Evidence heard and accepted in the trial by the court is that the plan was hatched in December two months before the murder.”
Judge Pitman said that WhatsApp communication confirmed that this was a planned murder and that this communication was between the accused, including the erstwhile accused, Brown.
“All this prior planning is inconsistent with the alleged attempt to rekindle the marriage. I do not doubt that Dosantos’s motive was to get insurance money. She used a honeypot trap to lure the deceased to the place where he was killed on the pretext of rekindling the relationship, she knew he would come willingly. They enjoyed some wine with her naked in the back seat and she ensured that when the killers came he would be vulnerable, it was a sophisticated plan,” said Judge Pitman.
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