Pretoria - A Faerie Glen man will spend 20 years in jail for crushing the skull of a Mountain View liquor store employee with a 1.5 litre bottle of Autumn Harvest Crackling wine.
Juan Pierre Smit, 22, was sentenced in the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday, after pleading guilty to breaking into the Super Lion bottle store in Mountain View.
He hit Jennifer Wright over the head with the bottle as she was cashing up the day’s takings and stole R7 300 from the till.
Judge Nico Coetzee said the only reason Smit escaped a life sentence was because he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol that day and pleaded guilty to the charges.
In his plea explanation, Smit admitted to murdering Wright and taking money, cigarettes and alcohol. He said he could not clearly recall what happened, but recalled crushing Wright’s skull with the bottle.
He said he was very sorry for what he had done. He told a psychologist at Weskoppies Hospital that on the morning of November 9, 2013, he had an argument with his brother over a secret relationship he had with his brother’s sister-in-law.
Smith said he bought a litre of brandy, which he drank. He then visited his friend in Mountain View and they drank more and used the drug cat. The pair decided to go to the bottle store. They were asked to leave the store when it closed, as Wright wanted to cash up. Smit jammed the lock with a box of matches. His plan was to return to rob the shop.
After hitting Wright over the head, he fled with his loot. Residents tried to arrest him but he broke into a nearby tennis club and hid.
Smit said he could not remember much, but recalled being “surrounded by blue lights” and taken to the police station, where he “passed out”.
The court heard he was adopted when he was a baby and that his biological father fell off a balcony after an overdose of drugs and died. His biological mother, who was homeless, also died, apparently from alcohol.
Smith started drinking from an early age and used drugs. He was in and out rehabilitation centres but continued using drugs.
Psychiatrists testified the court should take into consideration that Smith was probably predisposed to abusing substances due to the genes he inherited from his biological parents. His adoptive parents, however, doted on him and tried their best to keep him on the straight and narrow path.
Smith confessed to a psychologist to “living a life of partying and self destruction”.
He also admitted that he was always tempted by drugs and alcohol and could not resist them, as it was “the best way for him to deal with his problems” .
Pretoria News