Durban - Four years after Shandel Kisten was convicted of killing her stepfather, she is ready to apologise to his family.
Kisten, who is four months pregnant with her second child, made a brief appearance in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday (Tueday), where she was meant to be retried for the March 2009 murder of Loganathan Chetty.
In 2012, she was convicted of drugging and strangling Chetty and was sentenced to 10 years in jail by magistrate Anand Maharaj. At the time, the State claimed Kisten had spiked Chetty’s tea with sleeping tablets and after he dozed off, strangled him with a dressing gown belt.
During the trial Kisten initially pleaded guilty but made a U-turn and pleaded not guilty. Sentence proceedings started on April 11, 2012, when she was over 18. She was 15 at the time of the murder.
In August 2015, Kisten’s attorney Siven Samuels appealed against the conviction and sentence. At the time, Judges Mohini Moodley and Mahendra Chetty ruled that Kisten be retried. Judge Moodley said the trial had been flawed.
She criticised prosecutor Val Mellis, magistrate Anand Maharaj and the accused, saying material irregularities in the trial were not in accordance with justice.
It also emerged from the judgment penned by Judge Moodley that Kisten, after realising that a prison sentence was looming, claimed that her mother had masterminded the murder.
The investigating officer, Warrant Officer Jomo Govender, previously said the evidence against the accused’s mother, Lucy Kisten, was weak.
On Tuesday, the matter was adjourned to a later date because of the unavailability of a magistrate.
Kisten who is out on bail, told POST she had had the matter “hanging over my head for too many years and finally wanted to get it out...
“I am sorry for the pain I caused to my stepfather’s family...”
She intends pleading guilty.
“It has been very stressful. I just want this to be over. My children are my main focus,” said Kisten.
“My son is 5 and I am expecting my second child in October.”
Attorney Samuels said he was glad they would be getting closure.
“I have been Shandel’s attorney from the beginning. I have watched her growing into a young woman. She has been going for continuous counselling with Joan Van Niekerk of Childline which has been very helpful.”
Kisten said saying she was sorry to Reddy’s family would also lift the burden she had been carrying.
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