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Addict freed of wife killing
14/11/2006 19:41 - (SA)
Pretoria - An addict, who claimed his drug lords had murdered his wife, was acquitted of the murder by Pretoria High Court on Tuesday because his story might be true.
Acquitting Rolf Dieter Meier of the April 2004 murder of his wife, Alison, Judge Mahomed Ismail said there was doubt as to who had murdered her and that her husband should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Meier was convicted, however, on a charge of housebreaking after admitting he had broken into a family member's home and stolen appliances to fund his drug habit.
Meier was charged with murder after police discovered him asleep in a limousine, filled with electronic goods, in the garage of his home and his wife's bloodied body under a bed in the spare bedroom.
Meier claimed he had seen his drug dealers running out of the house before discovering his wife's bloodied body.
One of them had threatened to kill his son as well. He owed them more than R30 000 at the time.
Shared cocaine with them
He claimed he had hidden the body because he did not want his young son to see his mother that way and had sat with his son - who was sleeping next to the dead woman on the bed - for hours, smoking cocaine and planning revenge.
When he did eventually confront his drug dealers, he smoked cocaine with them instead and claimed they also forced him to give up his wife's car.
A witness later saw three black men in the car. The car was found abandoned in an area known for its drug dealers.
Ismail said Meier's conduct might be suspicious, but the State had not proved his version was false beyond reasonable doubt.
His behaviour, though not always normal and rational, was also understandable in the light of his drug addiction.
To a normal person, using cocaine with the killers of one's wife seemed irrational, but to an addict the offer of drugs would be irresistible.
Meier's drug dealer, Alex Talimo, denied any involvement in the murder, but Ismail rejected his evidence as dishonest and filled with improbabilities and lies.
The court also rejected the evidence of Meier's six-year-old son, who testified that his father had clubbed his mother on the head with a piece of wood before jumping into the swimming pool.
Ismail said the evidence of the child, who was only three years old at the time, was not reliable as he had contradicted himself on several aspects and was clearly antagonistic towards his father.
The boy had told a police officer shortly after the incident that his father had shot his mother and taken her to hospital.
Boy's evidence not corroborated
In court, he first said his mother was killed in the bedroom, but under cross-examination said she was killed in the lounge and then carried to the bedroom.
Police never sent the wet clothes found in the house for forensic testing and there was, therefore, no corroboration for the boy's evidence.
Ismail said it was clear that the change in the boy's evidence may have been prompted to fit in with the accepted facts.
Meier will remain in custody until November 23 when he will be sentenced on the housebreaking charge.
- SAPA
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