Kirsten Kluyts murder accused to learn fate of bail application

The 21-year-old college student accused of raping and murdering Kirsten Kluyts is to set to learn his fate on whether he will be released on bail.

The case returns to the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court on Friday for the state to deliver its closing arguments and for a decision to be handed down.

The accused is facing schedule 6 offence and has been charged with rape, robbery with aggravating circumstances and premeditated murder.

Kluyts, who was 14 weeks pregnant with a baby boy at the time of her brutal murder on 29 October, was attacked at George Lea Park in Parkmore, Johannesburg, after she took part in the MyRun event.

Weak case

During court proceedings last week, the man’s advocate Itumeleng Masako argued that state has a weak case.

While CCTV footage placed the suspect directly at the crime scene and even showed him leaving wearing the same shirt she was wearing while on her run, he maintained that he didn’t rape or murder her, but merely stumbled upon her body.

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The suspect explained that he found Kluyts body, but took off her clothes so that he would not be implicated as he had contaminated the crime scene.

“I took the clothes and then I ran. I was running away because I was shocked that I was just with a dead body so if I leave my fingerprints there, they gonna say I am the one that killed her so it’s better I leave with what I touched and I go,” he said.

Masako asked his client why didn’t he go back to the police.

“I didn’t want to go to jail,” he said.

Murder

Masako argued that the evidence presented in court only supports charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice.

“I wish to remind this honourable court that during cross-examination, I never heard a word from my learned colleague that at any stage [the accused] had an intention to kill this person on this day and for what good reason do you kill this person.

“No cross-examination said ‘you knew her three months or a year before’. What the state relies on is the statement of the investigating officer. If it’s not farfetched, it’s remote and if it’s not remote, it’s fanciful and I’m saying that with the greatest respect,” the defence lawyer argued.

The court also heard that Kluyts was killed within an eight-minute window of her arrival for a race in Sandton.

The state is opposing the accused’s release on bail.

The 34-year-old’s Kluyts naked body was found by fellow runners who participated in the event.

Kluyts running shoes, sunglasses, blue T-shirt, pants, and pink cap were taken.

According to the state, Kluyts was struck with a blunt object before she was smothered and strangled until she died.

Her alleged killer was subsequently arrested at his student residence on 26 November after the police obtained video footage from the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the vicinity of Parkmore.

Additonal reporting by Molefe Seeletsa

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