Durban — The defence for a teen on trial for the murder of a fellow pupil in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court argued that the accused had no intention of stabbing and killing Jayden Glazer.
“When he admitted that he made a mistake, that ruled out intention as argued by the State and points to negligence,” defence lawyer Clinton Short said on Monday when the State and defence addressed the court on the merits of the case.
Jayden Glazer, 15, was allegedly stabbed after school by Ryleigh Naidoo a Grade 10 fellow pupil in Ashley, Pinetow,n in 2022.
The two teens both attended Chosen Independent Studies where Glazer was in Grade 9.
It is alleged that on the day of the stabbing, there had been a fistfight between Glazer and the accused.
The teen accused who was 16 at the time of the alleged commission of the offence faces a charge of murder. The trial was heard in-camera due to him being underage as well as other witnesses.
However, the accused turned 18 at the end of January and on Monday the media was able to sit in on court proceedings for the first time.
Short argued that the court heard during the trial evidence of the fistfight being organised on a Thursday for a Friday via WhatsApp where texts and voice notes were exchanged.
He said Naidoo’s girlfriend, who was a State witness, at the time the fight was being planned had even said though she would not be going to school that day she would be present at the fight.
“However, there was a change overnight. The accused did not go to school on that Friday making up an excuse about school fees.
“In the afternoon he went to take a set of keys to someone and got a lift from the grandparents of his girlfriend who had gone to pick her up from school.
“There he was sworn at and teased that he was scared. Earlier in the day his girlfriend had heard that there was a plot for him to end up in hospital,” said Short.
He said that the accused then went to the home of his girlfriend and when she took her dog for a walk along with her little brother the accused took a knife going with them, to protect himself after being previously mugged.
Evidence heard in the trial was that Glazer was stabbed with a Shogun steak knife. The stabbing was caught on a cellphone camera by one of Glazer’s friends and a State witness. In the video, the pupils can be heard shouting “We said no weapons” when Naidoo produced the knife.
In the video Glazer is unarmed and testimony was that he was asked to pull up his T-shirt to show that he had no weapon. Evidence from one witness was also that Glazer had a knife which he had dropped, however, this is not captured in the video.
“In the video, we see him (Glazer) with both his arms behind his back, the accused could not see what was or was not in his hand,” said Short.
“It got to a point where he became suspicious and he told his girlfriend that he thought the deceased might have a knife. She shouted to the friend taking the video to tell the deceased to raise his shirt and all three (Glazer and his two friends) laughed at the accused and his girlfriend.
“There could be suspicions that certain parts of the video were deleted but let's look at what we do have instead of what we don’t have,” said Short.
He said the evidence was clear, the accused did not wake up that morning with the intent of killing the deceased.
“He woke up with the intent of pulling out of the school yard fight. The stabbing was an act of defence against the deceased ...
“He was sworn at earlier in the day, and teased and now he faces his bully; there is a suspicion that he (Glazer) has a knife and had learnt of a plan to put him in the hospital.
“Here he was, he had his girlfriend and younger brother there and had all these thoughts bombarding his mind, the deceased was flanked by his two friends.”
The court is due to make a ruling towards the end of February.
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.
Daily News