Durban - Minutes before he died, former British Royal Marine Brett Williams told paramedics he was “fine”.
Blayne Shepard, 24, his brother, Kyle, 26, and friends Andries van der Merwe, 24, and Dustin van Wyk, 24, are on trial for the murder of Williams and on other charges relating to events at Kings Park Stadium on March 23 last year. All four pleaded not guilty.
The State alleges the men assaulted Williams during a brawl and he died at the scene.
Paramedic Derrick Banks, of ER24, testified in the Durban Regional Court on Monday that he attended to Williams after his initial fight with Grant Cramer.
“He was slightly disorientated but verbalised that he was okay. I checked his pulse and his pupils to check the reaction was not sluggish and everything was fine… he could stand on his own,” he said.
Cramer testified earlier that he was involved in a fight with Williams that night, but was not part of a second brawl in which the State says Williams was killed.
He said he lost his chain during his fight with Williams and went to look for it.
Cramer was arrested, but the State withdrew the charges against him, saying his actions had been in self-defence and he was not involved in the brawl that caused Williams’s death.
Banks said after Williams got up, he moved him away from the crowd to check his blood pressure.
He said that he saw another fight break out between security guards and people in the vicinity over the missing chain.
He said Williams walked away after his medical check was complete and he later saw a second assault where Williams was allegedly kicked in the head by Blayne Shepard. “He was lying on the ground… There were white males assaulting him and I saw accused one (Blayne) use his foot to stomp on the deceased’s head,” he said.
Banks said he tried to help Williams, but was pushed away.
“Security guards were also pushed back. Within seconds, the fight was over and I went to the deceased. He was on his side and it appeared he had tried to get under a trailer to protect himself. He was not moving or breathing and it was blue around his lips.”
Banks said he performed CPR and called for oxygen, but Williams was declared dead.
Earlier on Monday, the court viewed footage from the stadium which purportedly showed the four accused. The court heard that there were no cameras in the vicinity of where the attack took place.
Former Fidelity Security employee Kevin Breckle testified that he was told by the stadium management to look for “incidents and suspects” from footage between 10pm and 10.30pm on March 23. The authenticity of the footage was challenged by defence advocate Christo van Schalkwyk, acting for the Shepard brothers, who said the footage could not be independently verified because the original recording was no longer available.
Another witness, Fidelity Security guard Michael Norman, was excused from court on Monday after he suffered an emotional episode during his testimony last week. He has been referred to a psychologist.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
The Mercury