A woman who lived near Kwanobuhle told the court how she heard three gun shots on the day Jayde Panayiotou was murdered.
|||Port Elizabeth – A woman who lived near the Uitenhage township of Kwanobuhle told the Port Elizabeth High Court on Wednesday how she had heard three gun shots, on the day Jayde Panayiotou was killed.
Rachel Windvogel was the last witness to be called to the stand on the second day of the murder trial against Christopher Panayiotou and his two co-accused Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko.
The prosecution believes the shots heard were the shots that killed the Riebeek College school teacher. Windvogel told the court how on the morning of April 21, 2015 she heard three “clear” gun shots which went off “quickly”.
“I heard three shots and I heard a vehicle, the vehicle drove off into the direction of Kwanobuhle,” she said.
Windvogel said that she was “scared” upon hearing the shots but did not call the police.
It emerged that Windvogel’s niece, Charlene van Rooyen, who is a police officer stationed at Kabega Park, later called her aunt to inquire about the incident.
“Were you not curious to know how she [Van Rooyen] found out about the shots?,” asked Advocate Peter Daubermann.
Daubermann further asked why Windvogel did not call the police immediately if she was supposedly scared.
She responded: “I was shocked and scared when I heard the shots it did not occur to me at that time.”
Windvogel said that she had only become aware of what happened the next day when police arrived at her home.
Earlier on Wednesday, an emotional Toni Inggs, told the court that she had loved Christopher Panayiotou as a brother and defended him at the time she realised the couple were going through “unhappiness” in the marriage.
“I was aware of unhappiness and I did speak to Jayde on a few occasions, she was incredibly lonely, Jayde and Christopher lived separate lives,” Jayde Panayiotou’s younger sister said.
Inggs said that she regretted defending her brother-in-law by telling Jayde “things would get better” and that “Chris was working hard”.
Inggs said that Jayde was “basically forbidden” to touch Christopher’s phone and while she was not aware of any extra marital affair, she questioned Christopher’s privacy policy with his wife.
Things later got heated between Inggs and Advocate Terry Price, this after months of obvious tension between the Panayiotou and Inggs families.
Price said that he was referred to as a “pig” and he did not understand why Toni Inggs would post hateful comments about Christopher’s mother Fanoula on Facebook.
At this point, Inggs angrily told Judge Dayalin Chetty that Prince previously called her “f*****g stupid”.
Inggs said that she was angry and she wanted justice for her sister, Jayde.
“I want him [Christopher] to be put away, my sister was murdered… the Panayiotou family treats us [Inggs family] like the enemy, they show no remorse or compassion, since the day Christopher was arrested,” she said.
It is alleged that Christopher Panayiotou paid Luthando Siyoni, a bouncer from his Infinity nightclub, to hire alleged triggerman, Sizwe Vumazonke to kidnap and kill Jayde. The State alleges that Sinethemba Nenembe assisted Vumazonke to kidnap and murder Jayde at the behest of her husband. Siyoni has since turned state witness while Vumazonke has died.
Sibeko was the last suspect to be arrested, 15 months after the murder, and has apparently been linked through cellphone mapping to being present outside Jayde’s complex in the days before her murder. However, his exact role in the events is still unclear.
The trial will resume on Thursday.
African News Agency