Cape Town – The mother of convicted murderer Jason Rohde testified in the Western Cape High Court on Monday that her son hates any display of aggression.
Brenda Rohde was testifying in mitigation of sentence after Rohde was convicted of his wife Susan's murder in November last year.
His mother told the court that there had never been any complaints of physical aggression by her son even when he was a child.
She said Rohde was good at managing conflict situations, especially while they were business partners at an estate agency a few years ago.
Brenda said her son could appear "aloof and standoffish" to a stranger but had a "heart of gold".
She said he had been a very good son to her and her husband, who adopted Jason as his own when he was still young.
"I can't emphasise enough Jason's gentle, caring personality. Not only with his family, but with his friends and with his business employees. He was always there for them... He has always been accommodating and understanding."
Only one mention was made of the late Susan, when Brenda explained that they had had mixed feelings about her and Jason marrying so young.
However, they had been "very happy with his choice of girl. A lovely girl".
Brenda said a lot of mothers would say the same, but insisted that her son was a "good, kind and loyal person".
#Rohde: Brenda says Jason’s father disappeared after they separated when Jason was 14 months old. She had to place ads in newspapers to to get divorced from him when Jason was 2. Jason was adopted by her new husband but that was complicated again by his missing father. @eNCA pic.twitter.com/kVogORUwGD
— Nadine Theron (@NadineTheron) February 18, 2019
Defence lawyer Graham van der Spuy asked if she had seen any violence or misogyny from him.
"I have thought back and there is honestly nothing that I can repeat that has even come close to being physical at all... I have seen no physical act of aggression from Jason at all," she said.
"I have never had any complaints. If it has happened, I am totally unaware of it and I don't think it has, as he doesn't like aggression as such. He hates the display of violence. He is a gentle person."
She became emotional toward the end of her testimony as she spoke about how much her son was loved by everyone in the family.
"I love him very much, so does his father, his sister, aunts, cousins... and they're with him every step of the way. I ask the court to be lenient, if for no other reason than for his children."
She said they would all suffer without him – his three daughters without a father or financial support and she and her elderly husband without Jason as a critical part of their real estate agency business.
Earlier, a friend of Rohde asked the judge to sentence him with "fairness and empathy". Testifying in mitigation of sentence, David Craig Livingstone told the court that he had been friends with Rohde since 2015.
“A long sentence would be extremely harmful and destructive for his three girls that he loves dearly,” he said.
Asked by defence advocate Graham van der Spuy if he would like to add anything in mitigation of Rohde’s sentence, he said: “I will just ask the court that Jason will be sentenced in the interest of fairness and empathy.”
The sentencing proceedings of Rohde resumed on Monday after the trial adjourned on December 6. Rohde spent Christmas in Pollsmoor prison after his bail application, pending sentence, was denied by Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe.
Asked to comment on Rohde’s character since he had known him as a friend, Livingstone said: “As a friend I found him very kind, I found him very caring, very supportive, very understanding.
"And he always had a very calm demeanour, very calm nature whenever I had to meet him for breakfast or for lunch or for dinner, he was always the same and he would treat you the same. And as a friend, a very loyal friend to me."
Van der Spuy asked Livingstone if he had ever heard Rohde saying bad things about his wife, to which he replied: “No, I’ve never heard him saying a bad word about anybody to be honest, whenever I was in his company, met him, he’s never said a bad word about anyone. As I said before, he really cares about the needs of others.”
#Rohde: Brenda says all Jason’s employees trust and admire him. He’s been a good son, caring, a stable personality. He was always there for her. He is aloof, standoffish but also fun and loving. “My grandchildren adore their father and I ask this court to be lenient” @eNCA
— Nadine Theron (@NadineTheron) February 18, 2019
He further told the court that Rohde was very intelligent and a very successful businessman and he (Livingstone) had never observed any signs of violence in Rohde in the years he had known him as a friend.
State advocate Louis van Niekerk told the court that the picture that the defence witness was projecting was completely different compared to what the court had found in Rohde's character.
"The court made some very harsh findings on his actions and also pertaining to his character related to the facts before the court.
"You haven’t read the judgment but I’m not going to take you back there. But it completely differs from the picture that you project here for us today compared to what the court said," said Van Niekerk.
The former Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International CEO was found guilty of murdering his wife Susan Rohde and obstructing the ends of justice by staging her suicide.
Susan’s body was found in a locked bathroom in a room she shared with Rohde on July 24, 2016 at the Spier Wine Estate Hotel in Stellenbosch.
Her body was found with an electronic cord wrapped around her neck. The cord had been tied to a hook on the back of the bathroom door.