Durban — Sentencing proceedings got under way on Tuesday in the Durban High Court for the Newlands East woman and her friend who were found guilty of the murder of her husband in January.
Mark Buttle was stabbed 53 times in the neck in 2018 while in his car in Newlands East allegedly by his wife Analidia Dias Bella Dosantos, her lover Teagan Allison Brown, and the two women’s friend Charmaine Margaret Khumalo. Brown died in July last year before the trial.
On Tuesday, Khumalo’s attorney, Musa Chiliza, called her to the stand to testify in the pre-sentencing proceedings.
Chiliza asked Khumalo to comment on the fact that Buttle’s family had expressed hurt over the loss of their son.
“I feel for them, I feel sorry for them, for their loss,” said the mother of two.
Khumalo while on the stand laid bare her personal circumstances for the court to consider ahead of being sentenced.
She told the court that she had a previous conviction that dates to 2001 when she was convicted of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm and her sentence was a fine of R1 500.
“The total fine was R3 000. I was ordered to pay R1 500 up front and the rest was suspended for five years. I was convicted of assaulting the wife of my ex-boyfriend. I have been law-abiding from then until now. I don’t know the family of the deceased,” she said.
Dosantos is believed to have hatched the plan to kill Buttle with Brown, and Khumalo was later roped in when it came to the execution of the plan in terms of finding someone who would do it. However, the women carried out the murder themselves.
It’s alleged that an insurance policy was the motive behind the murder, coupled with the fact that Dosantos, 41, was alleged to have been having an affair with Brown, 25.
Following the murder, Dosantos while on Napdale Road allegedly parted ways with the other women, going to a nearby house where she reported that she had been with her husband and they had been hijacked.
The court heard how before her arrest, Khumalo was employed as a cashier at a supermarket and spent four months behind bars before being released on bail.
She said upon her release she learnt that she no longer had employment.
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