Gardener sentenced to life plus 58 years imprisonment for murder
The suspect was employed by the victims as a gardener at Blou Boschkraal farm in Waterval Boven.
Friday last week, the High Court sitting in Nelspruit sentenced Doce Arcodano (23) of Balfour to life imprisonment and an additional 58 years after he was found guilty on two counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, one count of murder and one count of attempted murder and theft.
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According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Arcodano was employed by the victims as a gardener at Blou Boschkraal farm in Waterval Boven and was staying with his employers who are the victims in the matter.
The NPA said in a statement the evidence presented in court is that, on 21 June 2017, the accused approached the victim’s wife who is the complainant in count 1 and requested her to give him money. The victim’s wife informed him that she does not have the money and that he must wait for her husband. Then the accused forcefully took the victim’s wife from her house, tied her to a tree inside her yard and then put a cloth on her mouth to prevent her from screaming.
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On the arrival of the victim‘s husband, the accused also attacked him, he assaulted him with an iron object as a result, he was admitted to a hospital and died a month later. After all this, Arcodano stole his victim’s belongings and loaded them onto a trailer that he had hired before the incident. He stole a 74 cm TV, a trailer, washing machines, Sansui Hi-Fi, Brush cutter, bicycle, gas stove, and other items. All valued at about R100 000.
The accused was arrested the next day after he was seen on the video footage at Machado toll plaza travelling on the vehicle that was pulling a trailer with items of the deceased and the surviving victim.
In sentencing the accused, Judge Van Rensburg AJ, said the offences committed by the accused are of a serious nature and might have been caused by greed and revenge, because, after he committed the offence he took the victims’ possessions though he attributed his actions to failure to control his anger and emotions. The accused destroyed the employer-employee relationship. He then sentenced him to 5 years each for each count of kidnapping, 15 years for each count of robbery with aggravating circumstances, life imprisonment for murder, 10 years for attempted murder and another 8 years imprisonment for theft.
