Pretoria - "I never doubted that he was guilty of murdering my daughter,” the emotional mother of Nicolene Schreuder said on Monday.
Rosalind Schreuder was speaking after Dawie Connoway, accused of gunning down her daughter at her workplace in Moreleta Park last year, was convicted of murder.
The killing of the 36-year-old Nicolene shortly before the Easter weekend in the parking lot of Manage All Solutions made headlines at the time.
Schreuder cried bitterly in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, as Judge Vivian Tlhapi convicted the 38-year-old man of murder.
“Although I believed in his guilt, I am relieved that we got to this stage. But I will only get closure once he is sentenced. Then I don’t need to come to court again and see his face,” Schreuder told the Pretoria News.
During an earlier hearing, the distraught mother disrupted proceedings while Connoway testified, by shouting: “Dawie, you know you are talking nonsense” from the public gallery.
Connoway was, at the time, saying he had not fired at Nicolene, but that shots went off when she grabbed his firearm and he tried to take it back.
Dawie Connoway was convicted of murdering his Nicole Schreuder. Picture: Pretoria News
Nicolene was shot four times – once in the head – and she died in the parking lot of the business where she worked as a personal assistant to the chief executive.
The man pleaded not guilty to murder, saying, in his defence, that he had been trying to take the gun from her to protect himself.
Connoway sped off on his motorbike while Nicolene lay in a pool of blood on the ground. He pointed his firearm at the security guard at the gate of the premises, and told him to “f****** open the gate”.
His mother Elize Fourie harboured him on her farm at Rayton, where she hid him in a walk-in safe from police. She was earlier given a suspended sentence for obstructing justice.
Connoway was arrested the day after the killing, when the police discovered him in the safe, clad in only a shirt and underpants.
He earlier testified at length about their relationship, which he said was perfect 95% of the time.
He said things had turned sour when his teenage son accidentally drove over Nicole’s dog on the farm outside Bronkhorstspruit where they all lived, killing the dog.
Connoway said Schreuder was heartbroken about her dog and blamed his family for the incident, and that led to fights between them. Their relationship soured, he said, and he eventually asked her to leave.
They continued to see each other, Connoway said, adding that with time their relationship improved. He told the court that he often visited Nicolene, and on the day of the incident he went to her at her request. She wanted to discuss plans for the Easter weekend, he said.
In her testimony, Nicolene’s mother was adamant that after leaving Connoway, her daughter wanted nothing more to do with him.
A receptionist at the business premises earlier testified how Connoway arrived on his motorbike on that fateful day, and instead of his normal routine of asking the security guard to call her while he waited outside the premises, he came into the office to look for her.
Nicolene went outside with him and they had barely left the building when shots went flying. She said that had come as a surprise to the employees at the business, because they had heard no arguments.
Judge Tlhapi also questioned this in her judgment, and said if she accepted Connoway’s evidence that Nicolene grabbed his gun from where it was kept in his pants, one would expect loud talking. “But there was nothing. Everything happened in silence.”
She rejected Connoway’s evidence that his girlfriend wanted to shoot him and that he tried to grab the firearm.
She asked why, if he loved her as much as he claimed, had he sped off and left her bleeding in the parking lot, without summonsing help.
To make matters worse, he did not go to the police but hid from them in a safe.
The case was postponed to February 16 for pre-sentencing reports.