Court hears man's plot to kill 'lazy' wife
2012-09-06 10:31
Ingrid Oellermann, The Witness
Pietermaritzburg - The case of a man accused of plotting to poison his wife turned into a real-life whodunnit thriller when the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court played a video tape of a chilling conversation between him and an undercover police officer posing as a hitman.
The conversation between David Williams, 51, and the police agent he believed was a hitman has detailed why he wanted his wife of 22 years removed from his life as speedily as possible.
The court on Wednesday viewed footage in which Williams told the police agent he had “had enough” of his wife. “I have had enough. I have had this for 22 years and I… just want out of it. I want it over and done with fucking as soon as possible. I will get the deposit. Do it and I will pay you up and we’re square.”
Williams is seen and heard telling a policeman who posed as a hitman, and the friend he allegedly enlisted to help him carry out his plan to kill his wife, Trevor Madladla.
'Driving me up the wall'
“I mean it is in my interests… that this gets done and the sooner the fucking better because, hey, she is driving me up the wall - I promise you,” he said in the recordings played to the court. “She is just driving me up the wall and this man the other day asked me would divorce not be a solution, but divorce would not be a solution because then everything gets shared and you have to - you know, the house and everything - you know will be mine,” he continued.
The conversation took place in Williams’s blue BMW in the parking lot at Makro on September 26 last year.
The trio also discussed a fee of R10 000 and whether a shooting and staged hijacking or poisoning would be best.
Williams said at one point that he liked the “tablet route”, but it would depend whether it would be detectable in an autopsy. When the “hitman” suggested it would be “quicker with a gun”, Williams said it was up to him. “If you decide that, then that is fine… it must be done, but it must be done quickly. As soon as you have got your deposit, I want it done and finished.”
Williams told the men his wife was “lazy”, saying that she would be watching TV and tell him to give her the remote. “There is the remote there. She cannot fucking stretch out and pick up the remote,” he said.
There was also the “white/Indian conflict” such as the fact that Indians were “conservative in their dressing” and their daughter liked to wear shorts. “I am just tired of it,” said Williams.
Deposit
Williams said that at one stage that it wouldn’t be easy for him to get a deposit because all money he made went into his wife’s account, and if he made a withdrawal it would reflect on her phone.
He urged the men to wait until the end of the month so that he could “organise” a deposit.
During a meeting on October 4, Williams is seen exchanging R3 000 cash for six capsules in a plastic money bag and discussing how he should administer them. He was told to be careful and not to touch the capsules with bare hands, and that the powder in the capsules would dissolve in liquid or food.
“Well, she is always getting me to give her something to drink, so that will be easy,” he said.
Williams has pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to murder his wife, Vino.
The defence indicated that Williams alleges he wanted poison to commit suicide, not to kill his wife.
The case is proceeding.
