Nearly seven years after the horrific shooting which led to the death of Montevideo mom, Angela Marinus, the Western Cape High Court is set to hand down judgement to her former boyfriend, Wayne Lawrence.
Lawrence has been on trial for the shooting which led to the death of the 36-year-old mom outside her home in Nevada Street in December 2017.
Angela was shot in her head and neck and one of the bullets ricocheted off her and hit her 16-year-old daughter, who was with her in the car, in the foot.
During the trial, Lawrence pleaded not guilty to all the charges which included assault, kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, domestic violence and charges under the Firearms Control Act.
According to court documents, Lawrence submitted a plea statement in which he confirmed that he was in a common law relationship with Angela since 1998, and they had one daughter.
Lawrence told the court that he legally possessed two firearms and was a member of a shooting club. He claimed that during their relationship, Angela abused him and was jolling with other men.
He claimed that at the time of her death, she had been in a relationship with a co-worker, while he had been hospitalised for depression.
The document states: “The accused denies that he had planned to murder the deceased or that his actions were premeditated. The accused furthermore denied that he had any intention to murder the deceased. At the time of the deceased’s death, the accused was in a severely depressed state of mind having been diagnosed with major depression and generalised anxiety disorder. The accused was hospitalised for these illnesses in October 2017. He was also on prescribed medication at the time.”
According to a timeline of events, the couple’s daughter told the court that her mother was constantly emotionally, physically and psychologically abused since 2009.
In October 2017, she moved out of their home and two weeks later she obtained an interim protection order against him after he visited her workplace in Parow.
The documents state that during this time, Lawrence went to the home of Angela’s new berk with a gun and insisted she take him back, but she refused.
On the day of the shooting, Lawrence met with his daughter at his sister’s house in Woodstock. The girl later left and Lawrence tried to reach Angela, but was unsuccessful.
He later pitched up at a park near her home in Montevideo and waited for her. She arrived later after collecting their daughter.
“The deceased opened the motorised gate and drove to the back of the house where she parked the vehicle. The accused sneaked in by the gate and approached the vehicle from the rear driver’s side, although the Interim Protection Order prohibited him from entering the premises,” the court documents state.
Angela refused to speak to Lawrence and two shots were fired at her, as the couple’s daughter screamed: “My daddy shot shot my mommy!”
Judgement will be handed down on Friday.