Rot in hell! Man gets 73 years behind bars for murdering ex-wife
|Published
73-YEAR JAIL TERM: Killer Ashley October. Pictures: Mahira Duval
Tears flowed at the Western Cape High Court on Friday as convicted killer Ashley October was sentenced to 73 years in the mang for murdering his ex-wife and staging her suicide.
In her judgement, a scathing Judge Rosheni Allie did not mince words as she described Ashley as callous, smug and hellbent on squeezing the life out of Charlene October as he strangled her to death.
During the shocking trial, it was revealed that Ashley had tried to contract convicted child killer Reagan Zietsman to kill Charlene after their divorce.
Her lifeless body was found in a huiswinkel run by Ashley at her home in Protea Street on July 12, 2021.
Ashley, along with his employee Tashwill van der Rheede, was found guilty of the murder.
Court documents revealed that in 2011, Ashley had plotted to kill Charlene and asked his employee Ashley Kerr to break into her house, stab her and slit her throat, but he refused.
A year later, while Zeitsman worked for him, Ashley offered him money to kill Charlene and make it look like a housebreaking and rape.
Zeitsman went into the house but told cops he became too emotional and left.
In 2020, Zeitsman was sentenced to two life sentences for the murder, kidnap and rape of six-year-old Delvina Europa, whose body was found in a bush near her school.
According to the indictment, Ashley and Charlene’s divorce was finalised in 2015 but, six years later, she allowed him to run a winkeltjie from her home.
During the trial, Tashwell said Ashley offered him R200 000 for the hit.
He claimed that while the two of them were in her house, Charlene woke up and ordered Ashley to leave and this was when Tashwell left, “knowing Ashley would kill her”.
During sentencing, Allie said Ashley’s decision not to testify prevented Charlene’s family from having full closure.
She said he had no idea that medical evidence would conclude that the scratch marks on Charlene’s neck revealed that she had not hung herself, but instead had tried to free herself in her last terrifying moments.
“She must have experienced extreme fear as her former life partner was squeezing the life out of her. Accused two is a danger to society.”
Ashley was sentenced to life in prison for murder, 10 years for incitement to rob and murder, 15 years for conspiracy to murder, five years for housebreaking, 15 years for aggravated robbery and three years for defeating the ends of justice.
His sentences will run concurrently and he will spend an effective 25 years in prison.
Allie said Tashwell had cooperated with cops and his attempts to seek forgiveness showed that he was capable of rehabilitation.
She sentenced him to an effective 15 years in prison for his role in the murder.
Speaking outside court, Charlene’s son Ethan told Daily Voice: “We are happy with everything, but the fact that he is alive and my mother is gone breaks my heart.”