Too little evidence to sustain 'Black Widow' murder conviction: court
Thandi Maqubela, who was convicted for the murder of her husband, acting judge Patrick Maqubela, has had her conviction overturned. Picture: Cindy Waxa/ANA Thandi Maqubela, who was convicted for the murder of her husband, acting judge Patrick Maqubela, has had her conviction overturned. Picture: Cindy Waxa/ANA
Cape Town - Insufficient medical evidence on Friday led a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal to acquit Thandi Sheryl Maqubela of the murder of her estranged husband, acting judge Patrick Ntobeko Maqubela.
But the woman dubbed the “Black Widow” by the media won’t walk out of prison free. Jailed in 2015 for 15 years for murder, Maqubela, 62, still has to serve the remainder of a three-year sentence for forgery and fraud.
In the judgment appeal court judge Justice KGB Swain wrote that “in the light of the evidence that he probably died as a result of natural causes, an inference of an unlawful killing cannot reasonably be drawn”.
He concluded that the Western Cape High Court trial had incorrectly relied on the “evidence of guilty conduct” by Maqubela to prove that she was guilty of murder.
The court overturned the 2015 conviction and sentencing and ruled that it should be replaced with a not-guilty finding.
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Jolinda Vreugde Slager, spokesperson for Lamprecht Attorneys, who represented Maqubela said: “We are pleased with the outcome. During Thandi’s trial, neither pathologist could ever determine the cause of the late judge’s death with certainty.
“So Thandi was convicted without sufficient medical evidence that the deceased died of unnatural causes. In the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment, the court appreciated the difference between the scientific measure of proof when it comes to expert medical evidence.”
Slager was uncertain when Maqubela would be released on parole for the fraud and forgery conviction, but said she should be eligible for parole soon, as she had already completed two years of her three-year sentence.
“I do not know what Thandi’s plans are for the future,” she added.
In their ruling, the appeal court judges said: “It was held that when the medical evidence of Professor Gert Saayman a specialist pathologist as to the cause of death of the deceased, was properly assessed in accordance with the appropriate judicial measure of proof being the assessment of probability and not in accordance with the scientific measure of proof, being the ascertainment of scientific certainty the correct conclusion was that the deceased probably died of natural causes.”
“This conclusion was based upon objective medical facts sound logical reasoning and accorded with the probabilities as revealed by the medical evidence.
“The trial court had accordingly erred in concluding that the medical evidence as to the cause of death of the deceased was inconclusive.”
On Friday, Duma Maqubela, Judge Maqubela’s son from a previous marriage, declined to comment.
Maqubela, who told the High Court trial that his stepmother deserved at least a 20-year sentence, said he had heard about her acquittal but he had nothing to say.
“As a family, we haven’t been following what has
been happening with her. We’ve just been continuing with our lives.”
According to the State in the original trial, the acting judge was murdered on June 5, 2009. His body was found on his bed at an upmarket Bantry Bay flat, apparently a day after he had asked former nurse Maqubela for a divorce.
The conviction for forgery and fraud arose from her forging a signature on a will which declared her the sole beneficiary of the acting judge’s estate.
When High Court Judge John Murphy handed down the murder sentence in 2015, he said that Maqubela, 60 at the time, had suffered public humiliation during the trial and as a result, he regarded these as mitigating factors.
Judge Murphy said that the aim of the sentence was not to destroy Maqubela, but that “justice should be tempered with an element of mercy. I also accept that the accused has suffered public humiliation”.
The State, Judge Murphy added, had failed to prove that Maqubela conspired to kill her husband and that the crimes she had committed were motivated by greed. Had she succeeded, she would have benefited from her husband’s estate, which was valued at an estimated R4.1million.