Johannesburg - A Boksburg woman, her fiancé and her former fiancé have each been handed a life sentence for the murder of 23-year-old jewellery saleswoman Nthabiseng Selesho.
The trio also received a further 15 years each for having robbed the woman of over R300 000 worth of jewellery she had on her at the time.
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Acting judge Andre Petersen said he could not find compelling and exceptional circumstances that would justify the deviation from handing down life sentence to Candice Prevost, Ashley de Villiers and Wayne Williams.
On September 4, 2014 Prevost, Villiers and Williams lured Selesho to a house the three of them shared under the pretext of buying jewellery from her.
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Prevost was known to Selesho as she had been her client for two years.
At the house, Selesho was strangled to death. Her body was then bundled into a car and driven to Lenasia. Her car was then doused with petrol with the body inside and set alight.
The three were arrested a few days later but distanced themselves from the crimes, then later implicating each other during the trial.
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They claimed that they were not totally lucid on that day as they were under the influence of drugs hence they could not be held accountable for their actions.
Speaking at the Johannesburg High Court sitting in Palm Ridge, Petersen said during the sentencing on Tuesday that the three had not shown any remorse for their actions.
He said they had also stated that they were experiencing financial difficulties at the time of Selesho's murder, yet after selling the jewellery they went to a casino to gamble and also bought drugs.
"The extent of your greed led to the untimely death of the deceased and aggravating factors in this case far outweigh mitigating factors," he said.
While the trio were emotionless as they were sentenced, Selesho's boyfriend and the father to their two-year-old son sat slumped on the bench, hands on his face and cried.
"It took a toll on me emotionally to get to this point and the sentence is the beginning of a long journey to healing," he said outside court later.
After the case, Selesho's family profusely thanked the prosecutor, Advocate Rolene Bester, for the effort she put into the case.
The Star