The defence team for murder accused Rob Evans was rapped over the knuckles on Friday after the court found it had cited quotations from case law in its bail argument that it seemed did not exist or had no bearing on the matter.
Evans, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Vanessa van Rensburg, was back in the Humansdorp regional court.
Van Rensburg’s body was found on the lounge floor of Evans’s Oyster Bay holiday home on April 20.
When Evans’ case was called, magistrate Deidre Dickson wasted no time tearing into the defence’s submissions from the day before.
The defence submitted an application for the court to allow it to argue whether the alleged murder fell under schedule five or six of the Criminal Procedure Act.
It also requested the court to rule that the state put its case forward first.
Dickson found that the defence — which had filed an application the previous day — was within its rights to argue the schedule of the offence.
But she ruled that the defence had to present its argument first, before the state responded.
She said several of the cited case quotations either did not exist or had no bearing on the matter before her.
“I cannot find the quote you made under the State vs Josephs case in the actual case of State vs Josephs.
“State vs Mathebula, State vs Maden — these have nothing to do with what the heads of argument contain.
“Some of the quotes don’t even match the paragraphs they’re supposed to come from,” Dickson said.
The defence had applied to argue that the matter be treated as a schedule five offence.
The state maintains it’s a schedule six matter, due to the brutal nature of the crime.
Despite her criticism, Dickson ruled that the defence may argue the schedule of the offence.
“No-one should be deprived of their freedom unnecessarily,” Dickson said.
“The court wants to expedite this matter, but it’s now been two weeks and I still haven’t received full heads of argument.”
She said that earlier this week, Evans’ other defence attorney, Danie Gouws, told the court his heads of argument were nearly done and spanned 400 pages, but needed to be streamlined.
“Yesterday, only 19 pages were submitted — and they contained procedural errors,” she said.
Defence attorney Paul Roelofse asked for a postponement to finalise and file his heads of argument by Tuesday.
He also noted delays were partly due to faulty court recording equipment and other cases being prioritised.
Dickson postponed the matter to Monday.
Evans remains in custody.
The Herald
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