Durban - The importance of forensic technology in fighting crime was in the spotlight on Wednesday when a man was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on the evidence of a single palm print found at a crime scene.
The print was lifted from the inside of a window sill in August 2014 by a police fingerprint expert who went to the crime scene at 12 Collard Road, Umgeni Heights, where Alvin Meyer and his partner, Steven Edmunstone, were held up by two gunmen inside their home.
Just before escaping out of the bathroom window they came in through, the intruders shot Edmunstone dead.
Meyer was unable to identify the assailants. The gun and a stolen bag containing bank cards were found in the swimming pool. The stolen computer was never recovered.
But three months later there was a breakthrough with the identification of the palm print as belonging to Mveselelo Blose, a convicted criminal recently released from jail.
Blose was arrested and charged with the murder of Edmunstone, robbery with aggravating circumstances and housebreaking with intent to rob. No other arrests were made.
At the beginning of his trial before Durban High Court Judge Gregory Kruger this week, Blose tried to plead guilty to the latter charges.
In a written statement he said he was driving around with two friends “when we decided to go rob homes nearby”.
He claimed he only assisted the other two to gain access to the house by using a knife to open the bathroom window.
After that he waited in the car and about 15 minutes later his friends came running back carrying a black bag.
He admitted that they were going to steal from the house “and I intended to make common cause with them”.
State advocate Bonginkosi Mbokazi rejected the plea and proceeded to trial on all three counts.
Summing up evidence on Wednesday, Judge Kruger described the most significant of the witnesses as Meyer and the fingerprint expert, Constable Selicia Manogran, who, he said, explained that she had found eight matching features between Blose’s palm print and the print taken from the window sill.
“Significantly, only seven are needed for an identification beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge said.
It was also significant that the print was inside, facing down, indicating it had been left there as someone was climbing in, “not as if it had been left by someone opening the window from the outside with a knife”.
Blose elected not to testify and thus did not explain how his palm print came to be there and, the judge said, there was also the “uncontradicted and unchallenged evidence that the window was, in fact, open and it was a sliding window”.
“The only inference is he went inside and he was one of the two gunmen who confronted the complainant and the deceased.
“It has also been correctly pointed out by the State that on his own version he admits that he acted in common purpose in the commission of the crimes,” the judge said, convicting him on all three counts.
Passing sentence, the judge pointed out that Blose, a 30-year-old father of three, had previous convictions and served jail time for three other robberies and housebreakings, but had obviously not learnt from previous chances given to him.
“You were not under threat, not even by the dogs. You were in complete control of the situation because you were armed. And yet you shot while you were making your escape ... society demands that you go to jail for a lengthy period.”
He sentenced Blose to life for the murder and 10 and 15 years for the robbery and housebreaking - the legislated minimum sentences for all three crimes.
Afterwards, a tearful Meyer shook Mbokazi’s hand, saying: “You fought well. Thank you”.
He declined to comment to the press, saying: “It has all been said here.”
The Mercury