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- A woman is accused of orchestrating the murders of her parents and two siblings in 2016. She was 16 at the time.
- She and the two alleged hitmen have pleaded not guilty.
- The accused have challenged the admissibility of their confession statements, which have now been admitted as evidence.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has admitted into evidence a confession statement by a then 16-year-old girl accused of hiring two teenage hitmen to murder her entire family.
The teenager allegedly handed herself over to police in 2021, five years after her father, mother, her 18-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother were gunned down in their Mmakau Village home in Brits on 6 December 2016.
According to police, at the time of her arrest, the teenager confessed to the crimes and also allegedly led police to the hitmen, who were then 17 years old.
Despite this, the teenager and her two co-accused, who cannot be named because they were minors at the time the crimes took place, pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder, one count of theft and one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances.
After the State briefly led the evidence of the first police officer to arrive at the crime scene, it turned its attention to the confession statements.
READ | Woman accused of hiring hitmen: Cop rubbishes claim that confession was unlawfully obtained
The court heard that all three accused had made confessions to the police.
The defence teams of the accused challenged the admissibility of the statements claiming they were coerced into confessing, while the third said he was not afforded an opportunity to have his lawyer present while his confession was taken.
This led to a trial within a trial being held.
After the State led witnesses who were involved in the taking of the confession statements, the court ruled on Thursday that the statements could be admitted as evidence in the criminal trial.
The trial was postponed to 28 November.
Crime
According to the charge sheet, the woman allegedly let the two teenage hitmen into the house and handed them her father's firearm.
The father was shot in the head and chest, while the mother was shot multiple times.
The accused's sister was shot in the head, while her young brother suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.
The woman also suffered a gunshot wound, which the State said was meant to cover up her involvement in the crime.
According to the indictment, the woman wanted to kill her parents because they were too strict, and she yearned for more freedom.
After the shooting, the woman allegedly compensated the hitmen, who were cousins.
The accused have also been charged with the theft of a vehicle, a cellphone, and R2 000 in cash.
