Pretoria – Two men from the North West were each handed two life sentences and 20 years apiece for murdering an elderly couple at their shop in Christiana.
Quinton Brits (38) and Mabote Ernest Leshea (31) were sentenced by the North West High Court on Thursday. The ruling dates to an incident that happened in August 2020 after police found the couple murdered in their shop.
According to OFM, NPA spokesperson Henry Mamothame said the men were arrested after being directly linked to the crime.
“Following an alert to the police they found the place to be in disarray, with the husband tied up with cable ties. There was dried blood on the couple and the money tills were opened,” Post-mortem reports revealed that the elderly woman died as a result of strangulation, while the elderly man died as a result of coronary arterial disease,” he said.
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Mamothame said Brits was arrested on September 2020 at Jan Kempdorp after the victims’ daughter found items that were stolen from the shop. Just two days later, Leshea was arrested at Durban Deep near Roodepoort, Gauteng, with stolen items in his possession as well.
State Prosecutor Kgalalelo Molefe urged the court not to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence of life imprisonment on each of the counts of murder, IOL reported.
She said the seriousness of the offence should be considered as the couple were very elderly .
Judge Samkelo Gura agreed with the State and imposed a double life imprisonment and 20 years for each accused.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
