The man accused of gunning down a train driver will wait until next week to launch his bid for freedom.
Marlin Johnson made a brief appearance at the Bishop Lavis Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
The 22-year-old was formally charged with the murder of 46-year-old Pieter Botha.
Pieter was shot dead at the Netreg Station while waiting for a train shortly before 1pm on Monday.
The Malmesbury resident was shot in the leg and stomach after he got off a train, and while waiting for his next train to arrive.
Johnson and another man, Cedrick Andrews, were arrested in Bishop Lavis hours after the attack.
Dressed in a pair of faded tracksuit pants and a brown hoodie top, Johnson strolled into the packed courtroom and stood staring straight ahead.
The Kalkfontein resident spoke only once, to request a legal-aid lawyer.
Prosecutors requested that the matter be postponed for seven days, for investigators to get a bail profile on the accused.
Minutes later, Johnson’s neighbour Andrews, 37, was called to the dock.
He was arrested after cops allegedly found the murder weapon in his possession.
His matter was also postponed to next week.
Outside court Johnson’s aunt, Petronella Philander, claimed that he was “nowhere near the crime scene” on Monday, and that he and Andrews had been framed by a man called “Bal”.
“He was at home the whole day, he only left for two minutes to go to the shop to buy cigarettes, and came back to tell us someone had been shot at the station,” she says.
“That night heavily armed police stormed our house asking him if he was Bal and he said no, but they took him anyway.
“We know Bal, he’s the one that left the gun at the other accused’s house but the police wouldn’t listen to our explanation.”