WINDHOEK – A 21-year-old resident of Rehoboth on Monday offered a plea of guilty for the brutal murder of sixteen-year-old Camilla Gabriella Steyn, but denied he raped and robbed her.
Aldrin Goliath made the plea before Windhoek High Court Judge Christi Liebenberg concerning the crime that occurred in the early morning hours of 6 November 2016 in Rehoboth.
State Advocate Marthino Olivier however rejected the guilty plea and said that it does not remotely conform with the evidence that the prosecution has against the accused.
Judge Liebenberg entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of Aldrin Goliath and ordered the State to prove its case against him.
According to Goliath, he strangled the teenager to death after he suffered a “black-out” when she scratched him in his face while they were being intimate. “I held her on her neck for about 14 to 15 seconds and when I let go of her she struggled to stand up,” he said in a plea explanation read into the record by his state funded lawyer, Mese Tjituri.
He further told the court he met the deceased at a club in Rehoboth and she asked him to accompany her home as her “then boyfriend” refused to take her home. However, he said he had some personal errands to run and he told her that he cannot accompany her at that moment. When he returned from his errands – which was buying cannabis – he again met her at the Rehoboth Medical Centre and they then walked together, Goliath told Judge Liebenberg.
On their way, he said he rolled a cannabis cigarette and started to smoke it and the deceased also ask for a few puffs where after they kissed and proceeded to have sex. But, he said, while they were busy being intimate she suddenly pushed him away and when he enquired as to what was wrong she scratched him on the face. He then choked her and after he released his hold on her, she became weak and fell to the ground coughing and he “freaked” and ran home and only heard the next morning the deceased died.
With regard to the rape allegation, Goliath said he did not rape Steyn, but had consensual intercourse with her and he also did not rob her, but had the phone, Simcard and tekkies he is accused of robbing in his possession with the permission of the deceased, but just forgot that he had it until it was found in his backpack.
The first state witness, Javion du Plessis testified that the deceased was his girlfriend since April 2015 and that she called him that night at around 01H45 to come and fetch her as she was “a bit drunk”. As his parents was asleep and the garage locked, he said, he told her that he won’t be able to drive, but that he was going to walk to fetch her.
However, Du Plessis said, the mother of the deceased called him soon thereafter to enquire about the whereabouts of the deceased as she did not arrive home yet and he decided to wake up his father to get his permission to take the car. He further told the court after he did not find her at the medical centre where he told her to wait for him, he drove around looking for her and kept on calling her. At one stage, he said, she replied and told him in Afrikaans “Die jong wil my nie uitlos nie,” meaning this boy does not want to leave me alone possibly referring to the accused. The case continued yesterday and Goliath remains in police custody.