Wife killer Jason Rohde set for jail after losing bail bid

CAPE TOWN - Convicted wife killer Jason Rohde will start serving his 15 year jail sentence, nearly three years after he was sentenced, following his bail bid in the Western Cape High Court being dismissed on Thursday.

Rohde is expected to report to officials to start serving his sentence.

Initially sentenced in the Western Cape High Court on February 27, 2019, Rohde had applied for bail to the high court pending an application to the Constitutional Court for special leave to appeal against a decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal, relating to his appeal against his conviction and sentencing.

Rohde’s legal team said they could not comment on Thursday at deadline as they were awaiting instructions and would peruse the judgment once it became available.

Rohde, who maintained his innocence throughout the trial, was charged and convicted of the murder of his wife Susan Rohde and the staging of her murder as a suicide.

Rohde had also brought an application which he sought to have Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe who had dealt with the matter in trial to be recused as Rohde said Judge Salie-Hlophe was biased against him.

The State had also opposed the recusal application.

“(Rohde) urgently sought bail, got a suspension and protection from arrest... however, by all accounts, the matter remains urgent, particularly in light of the seriousness of his convictions: the murder of his wife and staging her death as a suicide. Rohde is of the view that it is not urgent. To deal with it as anything but urgent would indeed be inimical to the criminal justice system and would simply create bad precedent to all other accused persons in this position for the rule of law must be respected and adhered to.

“Lastly on the ground that I had made previous adverse orders (denial of bail and leave to appeal) it is the test for the court hearing an application for leave to appeal, that being, whether there are real prospects for another court coming to a different conclusion. The events of the trial are indelibly etched in the mind of the trial court who applies this principle with that background knowledge. It does, of course, postulate a dispassionate decision, based on the facts and the law, that a court of appeal would reasonably arrive at a conclusion different to that of the trial court. In order to succeed, the appellant must convince the court that he has prospects of success on appeal and those prospects are not remote, but have a realistic chance of success. That the SCA granted leave to appeal or bail pending the appeal as the case may be is not the basis for my recusal as per the requirements in our law,” Judge Salie-Hlophe had previously said.

Cape Times