Durban — Today will be exactly 15 months since a Hillcrest husband and father of two was shot and killed in a road-rage incident on Everton Road in Kloof.
Dean Charnley had been with his son Seth when he was allegedly shot by pensioner Anthony Ball last year a month before his 50th birthday.
On Sunday, as other families celebrated Father’s Day, the Charnleys laid flowers at the cross placed on the road where he was killed.
“This is our second Father’s Day without Dean… we will be celebrating by having a burger braai as we would have if he was still with us. The boys are being strong but they have been feeling sad and emotional today knowing their father is no longer with us, they miss him very much,” Charnley’s widow Robyn said on Sunday.
The trial in connection with Charnley’s killing is set to resume next month after it was adjourned on Thursday in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court.
When the trial began on June 7, Ball pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder and through a statement read out by his legal counsel said that on the M13 en route to his residence, he was tailgated by the Nissan Charnley had been driving.
On Everton Road Charnley stopped his car in front of his Subaru, got out of his car and came to his where he struck the roof of his Subaru with his hand violently.
Ball said that as Charnley was coming towards him he opened his window and fired a warning shot.
He alleged that Charnley had through the window grabbed him and partially opened the door grabbing the gun which he still held on to. The second fatal shot had gone off inadvertently during a scuffle, he said.
However, State witnesses Jean Moolman and Seth Charnley testified that it was Ball who had blocked Charnley from overtaking him on the M13.
Moolman testified that when Charnley hit the roof panel of the car with his hands a second shot went off and he fell to the ground, adding that he had not noted a scuffle.
Moolman, who had parked his car behind Ball’s Subaru, told the court that after the second shot rang out Ball drove off, and while he followed him he made a call to a police officer informing her of the incident.
Seth was the State’s second witness on the stand. He testified that he had been in the passenger seat of the Nissan when the first shot rang out and had alighted from the car after the second shot and saw his father fall to the ground.
“I decided to call my mom because I didn’t know what to do in that situation,” Seth said under re-examination by State prosecutor Rowen Souls.
On Thursday, Ball’s counsel, Gideon Scheltema SC, concluded his cross-examination of Seth.
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.
Daily News