Accused tells how son saw dead mom

Their three-year-old son came into the bedroom while his wife was lying dead on the ground and the child just stared at her. He could not tell the child his mother was dead, as it would have been too crass and the child did not ask anything.

This was the evidence of 43-year-old insurance broker Martin Badenhorst, who is accused of murdering his wife, after an argument.

It is claimed that Badenhorst shot his much-younger wife twice - first in the arm and then in the abdomen - during an argument in the bedroom of their Benoni home.

But Badenhorst said he was not even sure that it was he who “accidentally” pulled the trigger, as he and his wife were fighting for possession of the firearm. He claimed when the first shot went off, hitting Yolande in the elbow, she fought back even more strongly. This was in spite of medical evidence that the tiny woman’s elbow had been shattered by the shot.

Badenhorst said the fight on the night of November 17, 2007 was sparked by his wife telling him her boyfriend was not as childish as he was and that nobody wanted him.

He said she grabbed hold of his firearm, which was stored in a cupboard in their dressing room. He tried to get the firearm away from her and, while it was in the air, and both of them had a grip on it, a shot went off.

Badenhorst said after the shot went off, he asked his wife: “Darling, are you hurt?” She told him she did not know, but she tried with renewed vigour to get hold of the firearm. A second shot went off, and Yolande fell at his feet. He took her into his arms and held her as she died. Badenhorst said he screamed to God to help her. He told his wife to pray and grabbed the Bible and read a verse to her.

According to Badenhorst, he looked up and saw that their son, who had been in another bedroom, had meanwhile entered the room. He said while the child was looking at his mother, the boy remained silent.

Badenhorst then covered his wife’s body with a duvet and left her there, while he took his son to his sister’s home. He insisted that there was nothing he could have done for his wife at that point, as she was dead.

“If I could have done something for her, I would have,” he told the court. He said his son only spoke about his mother for the first time months after her death.

Badenhorst insisted that it was an accident and that he never meant to hurt his wife. He was adamant that he intended to commit suicide afterwards, but was instead arrested.

Medical and ballistic expert Jan Fourie, who was called to the stand by the defence on Thursday, severely criticised the post-mortem report on the woman’s death.

It was stated in that report that the primary cause of death was the shot to her abdomen. But Fourie said, looking at the facts, it was the secondary cause of death as she had gone into cardio-shock due to blood loss.

He also questioned findings by the pathologist that certain organs were damaged by the projectile, while others were not. He said to justify these findings was like “sticking a knitting needle through a hamburger, but missing the meat”.

Proceeding. - Pretoria News