The man accused of trying to kill alleged Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen by injecting him with snake venom plans to enter into a plea deal.
The alleged assassin, who is accused of dressing up like a female doctor in October 2017 and trying to kill Booysen while he was recovering from a gunshot wound at a Bellville Hospital, appeared teary-eyed at the Western Cape High Court on Friday.
Fabian Cupido, 39, from Scottsdene, was caught by Booysen’s bodyguards in his hospital ward and was later charged with attempted murder and possession of a stolen car.
Police found the keys to the car, stolen in Simon’s Town, in Cupido’s doctor’s coat.
Booysen was being treated in hospital after being shot four times - three times in the chest and once in the right arm - at the Cape Town International Airport, the third attempt on his life in six months.
While Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe postponed the matter to 4 March for certain aspects of the plea deal to be finalised, Cupido made a heartfelt plea to see his family.
“I would really appreciate it, my lady, because they cannot visit me at prison because of school, college and work and financial reasons.”
But Salie-Hlophe said while she understood his plight, she was not in charge of the holding cells as this was the responsibility of the police orderlies and the Department of Correctional Services.
“I will endeavour to report for them to consider the request favourably and possibly not all of the family but some of them,” the judge ruled.
Cupido’s distraught wife and children could be seen crying in the public gallery as he was taken away by a police officer.