Durban – Another trial within a trial has begun in the case of a Newlands East man who was allegedly killed by his wife, her lesbian lover and her friend.
This is after the State, in the Durban High Court on Thursday, wanted to submit a statement related to the admission of the crime by one of the two women on trial for the murder of Mark Buttle.
Buttle’s wife Analidia Dias Bella Dosantos and her friend Charmaine Margaret Khumalo are in the dock without Dosantos’s alleged lover, Teagan Allison Brown, who died in July before the trial began.
The three are alleged to have hatched and executed a plan to kill Dosantos’s husband so she could cash in an insurance policy. Dosantos, 41, was alleged to have been having an affair with Brown, 25.
The three women allegedly stabbed Buttle while he was in his car. This was after he had allegedly been lured to the scene by Dosantos under the pretext of working through marital issues.
On Wednesday, the court ruled that a confession and pointing out by Khumalo was inadmissible and could not be used in the main trial.
State prosecutor Khatija Essack moved to submit as evidence a statement made by Inga Ogle, who has since died. However, Dosantos’s defence, W Zama, and Khumalo’s Legal Aid attorney Musa Chiliza objected on the grounds that Ogle could not be cross-examined on the evidence.
The investigating officer who took Ogle’s statement has taken the stand and given evidence as to how and when the said statement was taken as well as the gist of its contents.
Warrant Officer Andre Moses has told the court that Ogle was married to the daughter of a State witness, Shareen Ogle, who is Khumalo’s ex-lover.
He said that the initial statement taken from Ogle in 2021 was damaged during the 2022 floods and he had to take another statement from her that year.
Moses said he obtained the second statement over the phone and read it back to Ogle and two or three days afterwards he saw her in person.
“I gave her the statement she was quite happy with it and she signed it,” he said.
The court is to decide after hearing the evidence and arguments whether Ogle’s statement is admissible in the main trial.
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.
Daily News