Murder accused Corrine Jackson’s bid to receive a lesser
sentence has backfired after her plea and sentence agreement was rejected by the State.
Jackson, 22, looked defeated when she appeared at the Mitchells Plain Regional Court on Wednesday where she is facing a Schedule 6 murder charge for butchering her estranged girlfriend, Nadine Esterhuizen, 18.
Jackson, who was assigned a legal aid lawyer after not being able to pay her private counsel, Advocate William Booth, had been in consultation for a possible plea and sentence agreement.
But her hopes were dashed when the lawyer, Ms L Boer, revealed that the State had rejected the proposal, and wants to go to trial, which has now been set for 18 February 2020.
Details of the plea and sentence bid were not revealed in court, but Boer said: “It is rejected by the State. They are not willing to accept, so we will move to plea and trial.”
NO PLEA DEAL: Corrine Jackson
Boer was given a tongue-lashing by Magistrate Mary Jacuw after she apparently failed to email the plea proposal to the Senior State prosecutor.
“Show me that email, I want that email,” said the irritated Magistrate.
“It is worrying, these are people, not a soccer ball. We are embarrassing ourselves in the way we treat people of Mitchells Plain. Are you trying to mislead the court?”
Boer was adamant she had sent the email and argued that load shedding may be why the prosecutor did not receive it.
VICTIM: Nadine, 18
Nadine’s mother, Vanessa Esterhuizen, was outraged and said the family also rejects the plea agreement.
“She (Jackson) wanted between 10 and seven years. How can she even ask for that?
“The report of the pathologist is that there was not even a drop of blood or water left in my child’s body.
“She continued to stab Nadine even after she had died. She must get the harshest of sentences.”
Jackson is out on R5000 bail and has been banned from Mitchells Plain.
OUTRAGE: Mom Vanessa Esterhuizen
Prosecutors are set to prove that she stabbed Nadine to death and sever her head at a house in Colorado Park in September 2017, in a fit of rage after Nadine had broken up with her.
Jackson, who was found hiding in the toilet with a dagger and a chopping knife, claimed she had acted in self-defence.