TWO men pleaded not guilty in the high court in Pietermaritzburg yesterday to charges of murder, housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances arising from the deaths of a Merrivale couple, Martha and Allan O’Neale.
Tdhe couple’s burnt remains were found in a plantation in the area in June last year.
The accused are Boy-Boy Alfred Ntuli (23) and Bhekumndeni Andrias Mkhize (24), both of the Merrivale area.
State advocate Dheelan Naidoo told the court he will lead evidence today about pointings-out the accused made to a police officer.
The state alleges that Ntuli lived on the O’Neales’ property in Vear Road, Merrivale.
Some time before June 15 last year, he and Mkhize allegedly conspired to rob the couple and realised that they might have to use force.
On the day of the attack they allegedly took rope with them, broke into the O’Neales’ house and lay in wait for the couple.
Martha O’Neale allegedly returned home first. The accused allegedly assaulted her and demanded bank card pin numbers which she gave them, and then they strangled her.
When her husband arrived home, the two assailants allegedly also demanded money and pin numbers, before assaulting and strangling him.
The husband and wife are said to have died at the house.
Their bodies were allegedly loaded into their vehicles — a VW Jetta and a Jeep Cherokee — along with stolen items, including a DVD home theatre system, CDs, two cellphones and a jewellery box.
The accused allegedly drove the two vehicles to the Dargle plantation, where they removed the bodies of their victims, hid them in the plantation and set them alight.
