A key cutter has unlocked the mystery as to how the alleged killers gained access to the St Johns retirement village, where two elderly women were murdered.
The double murder trial of five people, including a former caregiver at the Sunridge Park retirement village, continued in the Gqeberha high court on Monday, where the court heard the evidence of a key cutter who made a duplicate key, unknowingly for the alleged killers to gain access to the centre.
Testifying under cross-examination, Simphiwe Tys told the court that on September 29 2019, murder accused Mkuseli Damaneti visited Builders Warehouse in Buffelsfontein Road and requested two keys to be cut.
Tys said he was able to recall the day as he knew Damaneti, as they both lived in the same area in Walmer Township.
He had referred Damaneti to another branch, as he did not have both types of keys in stock.
According to Tys, the police arrived at his workplace on October 31 2019 with photographs of the keys and of Damaneti.
Tys had cut one duplicate key, allegedly belonging to the security gate which was accessed by the accused on October 9 2019.
In previous court proceedings it emerged that the Trellidor, which led to the frail care unit at the centre, had been locked by staff earlier in the evening.
Damaneti, 33, along with former caregiver at the centre, Nomgebisi Slangveld, 35, Akhona Mnxeba, 31, Luxolo Kruisjan, 33, and Nyasha Manyange, 36, have been charged with the murders of Agnes Burns, 97, and her neighbour Rosemary Langton, 87.
All five have pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, one of conspiracy to commit robbery, two of kidnapping, two counts of robbery and one of money laundering.
Staff at the centre made the grizzly discovery of Burns and Langton’s bodies on October 10 2019.
Both women had been bound and strangled, and their rooms ransacked.
It is alleged that, on October 9, Damaneti, Mnxeba and Kruisjan were taken to Broadway Street, Sunridge Park, by Manyange.
The three then walked to St Johns where they scaled the perimeter fence and once inside the premises walked up the stairs to the rooms of Burns and Langton using the duplicate key obtained from Slangveld.
According to the state, on the day of the murders Damaneti, Mnxeba and Kruisjan sold the items they had allegedly stolen, including various items of jewellery and the Kruger coins to a Sidwell pawnshop.
In November 2019, two other accused, Panganai Mike Mabwe, 27, and Craig Nyasha Madiro, 20, pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering after they were found in the possession of stolen cellphones linked to the robbery of Burns and Langton.
They were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for three years.
The case continues.
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