Cape Town - Kyle Maspero was 17 years old when he snuck up behind his girlfriend’s mother as she embraced her, and strangled her with a rope.
In March 2013, the young couple hatched a plan to murder performance artist Rosemary Theron at the Clovelly home they all shared.
The Western Cape High Court on Wednesday accepted Maspero’s plea of guilty which means the case will not proceed to trial.
In his plea agreement, Maspero detailed what happened on March 7, 2013.
He admitted in the plea agreement document that it was a premeditated murder.
His girlfriend, Phoenix Racing Cloud Theron, is already serving a sentence of an effective fifteen years after accepting an earlier plea agreement with the State.
Maspero further admitted that he knew that what he was doing was wrong, despite the copious drugs he had consumed at the time.
He said he and his former girlfriend woke up at around 9am that morning and smoked dagga whilst still in bed.
Maspero then smoked crystal methamphetamine in the bathroom on his own, before making breakfast for Phoenix and her eight-year-old half-sister.
The couple continued to smoke dagga and Maspero smoked more crystal meth before he cleaned the kitchen while Phoenix and her half-sister tidied the bedroom.
Maspero states that Rosemary Theron woke up at about 11am and reprimanded them for making too much noise.
She told them “it was futile cleaning the kitchen as it would only become dirty again, whereupon I replied that she should not sleep so late, and as we ate and cooked in the kitchen, I wanted it to be clean”.
Maspero’s plea agreement said the shouting caused the half-sister to start crying and so he took her to Phoenix.
He said they then discussed their intention of speaking to Phoenix’s mother about enrolling the little girl at a school, as she had not been attending school at the time.
The two continued to smoke dagga for the rest of the morning, and Phoenix finally confronted her mother about the half-sister’s schooling.
Maspero said “the deceased burst out laughing, telling us that (the half-sister) would run away from school as she had done the year before”.
Mother and daughter continued to fight and after smoking more dagga, Maspero admitted saying to Phoenix “it would be better if the deceased wasn’t around”.
According to the plea agreement, the deceased then left the house and the teen couple discussed how to kill her, Maspero suggesting that it would “be more humane to strangle her as she would lose consciousness relatively quickly and not suffer for long.”
The two agreed that “Phoenix would distract her at the garden gate, give her a hug and point out a star in the firmament, when I would approach the deceased from the rear, slip a rope around her neck and strangle her while Phoenix held her still”.
Maspero stated that he got cold feet the first time they tried to carry out the plan as he could not bring himself to do it.
“Phoenix shot me a questioning glance, stopped and gave the deceased another hug.”
Using a rope he had found in a pot plant, Maspero then placed the rope around the deceased’s neck and held it tight.
She struggled, but “Phoenix held her tight”.
The two then walked her to the bedroom.
“I held onto the rope all the while, whilst Phoenix told me to avoid looking at the deceased’s face and count off four minutes with her, which I did.”
Maspero said he was “horrified” by what they had just done, and after checking on the sleeping Shariel, the two covered her body with black bags and carried it to the backyard where they covered it with a plastic sheet.
After smoking more drugs, Maspero said he assured Phoenix he would bury the body the next day.
He stayed up all night smoking dagga and crystal methamphetamine.
Maspero said he could not bring himself to bury the body the next day, and used the bad weather as an excuse when Phoenix asked him about it.
The following day he dug a shallow grave and Phoenix helped him carry the body to it “after which I filled it with soil”.
Four months later, the couple rented a flatlet on the same property as an acquaintance, Godfrey Scheepers, in Gordon’s Bay.
Fearing Theron’s body would be discovered, Maspero said he enlisted Scheepers’s help to move it.
The two dug up her remains and transported them “to an open veld near the intersection of Baden Powell Drive and Strandfontein Road”.
Scheepers later confessed to police which led to the arrests of the teen couple. Charges against Scheepers were later withdrawn.
Judge President John Hlophe, presiding over the matter, extended Maspero’s bail, but warned him that should he not comply with bail conditions he would not hesitate revoking bail.
Defence lawyer William de Gras told the court they were waiting for a phsychiatrist’s report as well as one from a probation officer, but “lived in faith” that they would be completed before the next court date.
He said the defence would call three or four witnesses for arguments in mitigation of sentence.
Prosecutor Susan Galloway said she would be calling a family member of the victim and the investigating officer for arguments in aggravation of sentence.
Hlophe said the testimony of all five or six witnesses, as well as arguments could be heard in one day.
He said he would also deliver sentence on that day and postponed the matter to November 16.
Maspero, looking exhausted and drawn as he walked out of the courtroom, avoided the media, while his foster father refused to comment.
ANA