Murder accused Levonna Jacobs has admitted to beating up her dead cousin, but denies hitting her in the head, saying she would have hit the woman flou had she done that because she is a bodybuilder.
Jacobs yesterday took the stand in her own defence at the Western Cape High Court, where she stands accused of murdering her aunt, Virna, and cousin, Rowena Jacobs, and burying them in their backyard in Delft.
A calm and composed Jacobs, 38, dressed in a black jacket, would not look at the public gallery which was filled with family members of the dead women.
Jacobs, who is out on bail, is facing 10 charges including murder, theft, assault, fraud and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
The women’s bodies were dug up in December 2015.
It’s alleged she killed them to gain ownership of their house in Sering Street, Delft South, which belonged to her uncle, Donovan Jacobs, who died in March 2015 after he was killed in a fight over a burger.
Jacobs was questioned by her lawyer, Advocate Johannes Solomons.
Virna Jacobs, 47, and her only child, Rowena Jacobs, 25.
She admitted she filled out an affidavit at Delft SAPS pretending to be Rowena, and that she transferred the dead woman’s child out of school.
“I did Rowena’s affidavit in my own handwriting and when I did mine, I asked a member of the public to write it for me,” she admitted.
She also revealed Rowena gave her access to her Sassa card and pin because she owed a money lender, and that she withdrew R1 920 before her arrest and spent it on Rowena’s children.
She claimed she beat Rowena and scolded her one Sunday in Delft Main Road because she had left her children with Virna to go and suip.
“I know I didn’t hit her in the head because she would have been out, I do bodybuilding,” Jacobs boasted.
“Rowena was a good mother, but she used to use the children’s Sassa money to buy beers.”
Asked why she rented rooms in the house after the women went missing, she said: “Virna and I had a verbal agreement that I would perhaps buy the house and we even went to the Masters (of the High Court) in Cape Town.
“We received documents, but we never filled these in,” she claimed.
“When Johannes Plaatjies moved into the house, I said he can rent there but if the women came back, he would have to leave.”
She also claimed she didn’t know how the holes were dug in the backyard.
State witness Clive Geduld had testified Jacobs asked him to dig them.
“I cannot answer that because I never said it and I don’t think Clive would get to the back because there were dogs.”
Jacobs also denied ever telling relatives that Virna and Rowena had gone to Namaqualand and Malmesbury respectively after their disappearance.
She claimed she only heard about this when she was being questioned by Captain Pieter Joubert at Bellville Police Station after her arrest.