Court hears tale of drug-fuelled murder

Rookeya van der Westhuizen, foreground, who survived an attack that left her granddaughter dead. File picture: Timothy Bernard

Rookeya van der Westhuizen, foreground, who survived an attack that left her granddaughter dead. File picture: Timothy Bernard

Published Mar 27, 2014

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Johannesburg - Two cellphones, a camera and R90.

This is what pregnant Tracy-Lee Martins was raped and killed for in a drug-fuelled attack, allegedly by a boy who grew up in front of her and who used to visit her Klipspruit West home.

By the time the attack was over, Martins was dead and her grandmother’s face was black and blue.

Martins’s son, who witnessed the attack, was left severely traumatised.

Shinawaaz Ahmento, Kyle Fredericks – whose house is opposite Martins’s – and Lance Rooza were arrested in connection with the crime. They were charged with murder, attempted murder, rape and robbery with aggravated circumstances.

 

On Wednesday, charges against Rooza were dropped as the State could not prove a case against him.

The attack on Martins and her grandmother Rookeya van der Westhuizen occurred on April 26 last year.

Three days later, Ahmento confessed to the police.

In the statement, which has been submitted and accepted in court, he said he and Fredericks had smoked drugs earlier that day and wanted more money.

He claimed Fredericks then suggested that they go to Martins’s house and take her handbag.

At the house, Fredericks squeezed himself indoors through a security door and opened it from the inside for Ahmento to enter.

Fredericks then went to Martins’s room.

Ahmento said he heard Martins screaming and saying: “Kyle what do you want here?”

“I saw Kyle trampling on Tracy’s neck. I then told Kyle we must leave. I asked Kyle what he got from Tracy and he showed me a BlackBerry, a Nokia cellphone, a camera that was in a pouch and R90.

“I asked Kyle why he killed Tracy for these things and he said he killed her because she called out his name,” he said.

Ahmento added during his testimony on Tuesday that not only had Fredericks killed Martins, but that he raped her too. He said he had seen this while he was looking for things to steal.

When Fredericks was done, he also raped her, Ahmento testified.

All he did to Van der Westhuizen that night was slap her and cover her mouth so that she wouldn’t scream.

Fredericks, who took the stand on Wednesday, distanced himself from the incident.

In his evidence-in-chief, the 20-year-old gave the same answer over and over again when Ahmento’s version was put to him and he was asked to comment on it.

“It wasn’t me. I was home sleeping. I don’t know,” he said throughout.

He gave the same responses to the prosecutor, advocate Vincent Maphiri, during cross-examination.

When Maphiri asked him why Ahmento, who is his friend, would implicate him, Fredericks said: “I don’t know why he is involving me as I had nothing to do with this.”

It also emerged in court that while DNA linked Ahmento to the crime, Fredericks was never tested as he refused to have his blood taken.

Closing arguments were expected on Thursday.

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