A state witness has detailed experiencing sleepless nights after discovering body parts of 13-year-old Jerobejin van Wyk in a drain at accused killer Daniel Smit’s home.
Smit’s plea was rejected by the State on Monday at the Western Cape Circuit High Court sitting at Vredendal.
The trial against Smit finally got underway after being delayed due to Smit’s admission to Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital for assessment to determine whether he was fit to stand trial.
Smit faces charges of attempted murder by reckless and negligent driving, kidnapping, murder, violating a corpse and defeating the ends of justice, related to the murder of 13-year-old Jerobejin in Klawer.
Smit’s biological daughter, Carolina Smit on Monday appeared as a state witness when she detailed to the court how she was at home when her father brought barefooted Jerobejin to their home.
Carolina told the court when she saw the “coloured boy”, she told her father “do not hit”.
She said she had done so, due to “previous incidents”.
Smit pleaded guilty to all charges against him and made a number of submissions in respect of the charges he faced.
Another state witness, Marius Cyster, who works at the local municipality said he had seen Jerobejin and his friend the day they had fled from Smit who was chasing them with the bakkie.
According to Cyster, when he saw the bakkie approaching at high speed, he told the boys “maak dat julle weg kom” (make sure that you get away) and the boys then ran across the road in the direction of a garage.
Cyster was then probed about two days later when the municipality manager called his foreman, who instructed them to go to an address in Klawer.
“We were told to urgently go drain at a home. When we got to the home, I jumped over a wall, and we then put a pipe in to have it drained. (My colleague) inserted a 3-forked rake where he searched for items at the bottom of the drain that may have been lodged at the bottom. This is where human parts had come out,” said Cyster.
Having been shown a series of pictures taken of the human remains, Cyster had to compose himself and informed the court he was “not feeling well”.
He was directed to a set of pictures which included images showing remains of a skull.
Cyster told the court the case had impacted him and he still has sleepless nights about the discovery made at Smit’s home.
In his plea, Smit admitted that he was the driver of the Ford Bantam bakkie and that he had driven recklessly and negligently on February 2, 2022.
“I admit I was angry at the time because he (Jerobejin) and a friend were in my yard stealing fruit and when I spoke to them, he mocked me and that angered me.
“In my attempt to catch him, I followed him into the yard he was running into with the bakkie. I had to turn the bakkie sharply in order to catch him.
“At the time I did not know that I hit him with the bakkie. However after my attorney showed me the video footage, I do accept and admit that I have hit him with the bakkie at the time,” Smit’s admissions read.
Smit admitted that he then loaded Jerobejin onto his bakkie and when he arrived back at his home with the teenager, he told the boy to go inside his kitchen.
“I was still very angry and wanted to punish him but I saw he was scared and decided to give him a sandwich and a cold drink,” said Smit.
Further in his admissions, Smit said he had been part of a Chinese occult and joined the cult group at 13 years old where he was “taught how to do black magic and to cast spells on people” and over time he got involved in Satanism.
“As I saw (Jerobejin) standing there eating the sandwich and drinking the cold drink I gave him, it suddenly came over me. I walked to the boy and in a swift movement, with my hands, as I was taught in the occult, I broke his neck,” Smit admitted.
Smit denied that his actions were premeditated.
The matter continues.
Cape Times