Cape town - A witness 19, on Monday shocked the court when she said “they shot my brother in front of me, so this is like nothing”, as she testified in the trial of four men accused of killing a 24-year-old Kensington man.
Shannon Smith, 29, Aiden Petsersen, 21, Kyle Crouch, 23, and Melvin Filander, 26, appeared in the Cape Town Regional Court facing charges of murder and attempted murder after Wade Williams was stabbed to death on February 1, 2020, in Typhoon Street, Kensington.
They pleaded not guilty but a fifth accused, Ashwin Landsman, is serving a 15-year sentence after he entered into a plea agreement with the State.
The witness said she was on the scene when the incident happened. She had gone to a tavern with Williams’ mother, Wendy, when she saw the five men approaching, as she stood outside.
She said, “They were on their way to the tavern and Wade gave way but then all of sudden, Shannon turned around and asked Wade ‘do you want to take over the tavern?’ but Wade was confused.”
She said Williams didn’t say anything but Smith punched him and they started fighting as she and the tavern security guard watched.
She said: “It looked like Wade was winning and then Maggie (Landsman) stabbed him in the head with the knife. Wade was standing there with blood dripping down his face. He asked Smith ‘what’s going on, why are you doing this?’ Then I saw Smith coming from the back, he stabbed him in the neck with a knife but I didn’t see where he got it from.”
She called Wendy and that’s when Williams started running with the five men chasing after him. She said the two men closest to Williams were Smith and Landsman, who tripped him and stabbed him further. She said when his mother caught up with him, she took off her dress and placed it on his wounds to stop the bleeding.
“Wade was lying there bleeding to death,” she said.
Smith’s lawyer, Ingrid Rensburg during cross-examination said Smith denied he was involved or participated in the incident. She said Smith would testify that he was stabbed that evening outside the tavern and then left for his girlfriend’s house and never returned, but the witness was adamant her version was the truth.
Williams said her son’s death still haunted her.
“They turned a month of love to a month of horror,” because Williams was killed a few days before his birthday. The trial continues.