Western Cape High Court Judge rules against State's attempt to overturn Sias's murder acquittal

The Western Cape High Court has dismissed the State’s appeal to overturn the acquittal of Jeremy Sias for the 2019 murder of Meghan Cremer.

The judgment was handed down on Friday.

It followed after the prosecutor brought the application last month questioning defence witness Linda Mohr’s credibility.

Cremer, a showjumper, disappeared on August 3, 2019, and was discovered dead five days later in Philippi.

During the trial, the State argued that Sias broke into Cremer’s cottage, killed her and stuffed her body in the boot of her car before getting rid of it.

However, he argued that he found her car abandoned and took it for a joyride before finding her body in the boot and then dumping it.

Mohr previously testified that she identified Cremer as the driver of a vehicle captured on CCTV leaving the property at 6:26pm on the day of her disappearance.

Prosecutor Susan Galloway said in her application that Mohr was a “hostile” witness.

The State argued that when Mohr stated that Cremer’s vehicle was seen leaving the property on the CCTV footage, that she was able to identify the driver of the vehicle and at that point the defence stated that the person who was in the vehicle was either the murderer or the deceased.

Galloway said: “Mohr said she identified the driver as [Cremer] and based her identification on a ponytail that she used to wear. When she was asked by the prosecutor what she saw as the ponytail the record reflects that she amended her version of the ponytail and where the ponytail would be."

She added that the prosecution was stopped by the judge on cross-examination of Mohr when she identified the driver being Cremer.

However, Judge Elizabeth Baartman said in her judgment that the prosecutor was only prevented from leading evidence about her own ponytail to make comparisons after Mohr had pointed it out.

She added that there was no merit in the State’s application and dismissed it.

Sias remains acquitted of the murder charge and is out on parole after being convicted on two counts of theft and defeating the administration of justice.

Baartman found Sias not guilty of murder, saying the State had failed to prove its case after explosive testimony by Mohr, who outed Cremer as a drug addict and presented WhatsApp messages as proof.

Sias was eventually convicted of two counts of theft and defeating the ends of justice for dumping her body.

He was given an eight-year sentence, which was suspended for four years.

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