Addict tells of killing nurse
2005-08-15 23:13
Pretoria - A self-confessed drug addict told Pretoria High Court on Monday how he attacked and killed a city nurse and severely assaulted her friend with a stick after an argument about cocaine.
Willie Strauss of Westonaria said that while he was hitting Laetitia Brown, 23, and her friend, Deon Engelbrecht, he "looked down and saw himself attacking the people".
Strauss, 23, earlier said he could not be held accountable for his actions on March 13 2003, because drugs - combined with alcohol - took over his actions.
He said he had been addicted to drugs since an early age and that he even used drugs while awaiting trial in jail.
Acting Judge Joshua Dalomo earlier ordered him to "dry out" in C-Max Prison so that he could take the stand in his own defence.
Strauss and co-accused Johan Johnston of Hercules pleaded not guilty to murdering Brown and almost killing Engelbrecht.
Brown's face was bludgeoned beyond recognition and Engelbrecht, who was in a coma for a month, was severely brain damaged.
'An aggressive monster'
Brown died where she was attacked and Engelbrecht was left in the veld for dead.
Johnston, 21, blamed the murder and attempted murder on Strauss and said he had turned into "an aggressive monster".
The court earlier heard that the accused were visiting Jaqueline's nightclub in Wonderboom, north of Pretoria, that night.
When they wanted to leave, they asked Brown, a nurse at Pretoria Academic Hospital, for a lift.
Brown and her friends were also visiting the nightclub.
Strauss said Engelbrecht "promised them a coke party" as they left the club.
They drove to the veld near Kameeldrift Primary School.
"Engelbrecht asked me to make a line of coke. I told him I did not have anything and that I thought he invited us to a coke party.
"He then asked me whether I thought he was a drug lord," Strauss testified.
He said he walked away, but Engelbrecht attacked him from behind. "I picked up a stick and I hit him, again and again."
Strauss said he eventually felt someone jumping on him from behind, and he also attacked that person.
He realised only later it was Brown.
Strauss claimed Johnston later assaulted the two victims.
He, however, admitted that before they left, he "twice trampled on Brown's head" before leaving in her car.
- SAPA