Drennen trial starts in May
2004-03-26 13:02
Pretoria - William Kekana, charged with the murder of a baby, her mother and grandmother in Pretoria last July, is to stand trial on 14 charges from May, police said on Friday.
The trial has been set down for May 31 to June 4 in the Mafikeng High Court, sitting in Temba, said police spokesperson Morne van Wyk.
Kekana appeared in Temba magistrate's court on Friday for a trial date to be set.
He is accused of 14 criminal charges, including murder, rape, attempted murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery.
Janine Drennen, 24, her one-year-old daughter Kayla, and her fiancé's mother Hester Rawstone, 52, were hijacked in Sunnyside, Pretoria, on July 31 last year.
The hijackers shot Rawstone in the neck and dumped her body in the suburb of Riviera. They then drove Drennen and her daughter to Stinkwater, near Hammanskraal, kidnapping a teenaged girl along the way.
They took their captives to an open veld, where they raped Drennen and the girl before shooting them and the baby.
The teenager survived.
Charges against four men were withdrawn last October due to lack of evidence. A sixth suspect died in hospital following a shootout with police.
- SAPA