Durban — Next Tuesday the Durban High Court will hear the pre-trial in the murder case against the wife of a Newlands East man, her lesbian lover and another woman.
Charmaine Margaret Khumalo, Teagan Allison Brown and Analidia Dias Bella Dosantos are alleged to have hatched and executed a plan to kill Dosantos’s husband Mark Buttle five years ago.
The new pre-trial date was set on Thursday when the three women appeared in court where their pre-trial conference was initially expected to be heard, but was adjourned to next Tuesday.
Legal Aid counsel W Nzama representing Dosantos told the court that she was standing in for the attorneys for Brown and Khumalo who were not in court.
She advised the court that Brown’s legal representative had not finished consulting with the accused in preparation for the conference, adding that a new pre-trial date had been arranged between counsel and the State.
Judge Mohini Moodley in adjourning the matter said she could not certify the case trial ready since consultation between Brown and her lawyer had not been complete, adding that trial dates would be set following the conference next Tuesday.
An insurance policy is alleged to be the motive behind the murder coupled with that Dosantos, 41, was alleged to have been having an affair with Brown, 25.
Buttle was stabbed multiple times in the neck allegedly by the three women while in his car, this was after he had allegedly been lured to the scene by Dosantos under the pretext of working through marital issues.
The State alleges that Buttle, who was gainfully employed during the course of the marriage, had acquired life insurance policies of which Dosantos was the beneficiary and she had allegedly been aware of at least one.
The two lovers are alleged to have plotted to kill Buttle so that Dosantos could collect his life insurance policy.
All three women who are alleged to have killed Buttle on the evening of February 25, 2018 in his parked vehicle in an open area in Ferndale, are currently out on bail.
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Daily News