Judgment was reserved on Wednesday in a plea for leniency by convicted killer Donovan Moodley in the High Court in Johannesburg.
Judge Joop Labuschagne, who returned from retirement to preside over the matter, will hand down judgment next Wednesday.
Moodley returned to court to try and have his life sentence overturned.
He received the sentence for the murder of Bond University student Leigh Matthews in July 2004. He was sentenced to an additional 15 years for her kidnapping and 10 years for extortion.
After kidnapping Matthews in 2004, Moodley held her for several hours, took R50 000 ransom money from her father and then shot and killed her before dumping her naked body in an open field in Walkerville to stop her from later identifying him.
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Moodley's defence counsel Charles Thomson argued that the life sentence was harsh because the crime was not proved to have been premeditated.
He told the court 15 years would have been more suitable.
Thomson said that due to the media attention Moodley's case received, it was possible that Labuschagne bowed to pressure to give the life sentence.
He argued that if the case was taken to another court, the outcome would be different.
However, State prosecutor Zaais van Zyl produced statements made by Moodley indicating that he had planned the crime and called him a self-confessed liar.
Visibly hurt, Matthews' mother Sharon, who attended the hearing accompanied by her husband Rob, silently sobbed as details her daughter's murder were repeated.
Van Zyl said that releasing Matthews after she was kidnapped was an unexpected circumstance.
He said Moodley was not remorseful because even when he pleaded guilty, he said he was doing so only to spare his family the embarrassment and the media attention. - Sapa
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