In a shocking twist, it was revealed in court on Wednesday that the state had been in possession of an alleged recorded confession of murder accused Shakoor Roberts for the past three years but never listened to it.
The prosecutor at the Mitchells Plain Regional Court handling the case is now fighting to be allowed to use the cellphone recording as evidence against Roberts, who is accused of killing his mother Gafsa, 61, at their Tafelsig home five years ago.
On Thursday Detective Constable Jesse Philips, took the witness stand after state prosecutor Darren Johnson dropped a bombshell when he indicated he would now be submitting the alleged confession as evidence, after previously claiming the recording was “unusable and inaudible” and only the name of American rapper Nicki Minaj is mentioned on it.
IN COURT: Shakoor
Magistrate, Mary Jacuw, said she would first hear submissions on whether the recording was the original and had not been tampered with.
Constable Philips produced a CD on which he had copied the alleged confession, which was made in August 2017 at Roberts’ home in Tafelsig.
Philips said he copied the recording on his work laptop also, amplified the sound and that it was completely audible.
Johnson last month said the recording, made by Roberts’ cousin Jamia Daniels, was inaudible.
TESTIMONY: Jesse Phillips
During her testimony, Daniels said Roberts confessed to her, saying it “was either him or his mother who were going to die” and that he had asked Gafsa to say her Kalima Shahada (declaration of faith) before she died.
The State is set to prove that Roberts strangled Gafsa and hid her body in their bin.
Philips told the court that Gafsa’s family had
contacted him to give him the
“confession”.
KILLED: Mom Gafsa
He said he made the CD as he knew it could not be tampered with.
“I gave the disc to the State when the matter was transferred to regional court (in 2017) and it has been in their possession since,” the cop said.