South Africa - Susan Rohde, 47, murdered, Stellenbosch, 24 July 2016

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Slideshow is switched off. Prosecutor Louis van Niekerk talks about his brother-in-law Peter Norton's testimony, that Susan's dad's infidelity had a role to play in the state of mind she had before committing suicide.

Jason: "I am not sure how he would have been able to comment on that. I thought it [that question on infidelity] was put to Mark Holmes [Susan's brother]"

Prosecutor goes back through the record and reads out Norton's testimony on family meeting in Johannesburg and his wife Angela being mad then "because of your infidelity".

Jason: "I am not quite sure what you are driving at". Prosecutor says question was put by defence to Norton to make a link between Susan's dad's infidelity and Jason's infidelity.

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Jason: "Are you saying my wife wasn't affected by her dad's infidelity?"

Prosecutor reminds Jason that Norton testified: "It [Jason's infidelity] was outrageous for Angela [Norton's wife]". Says Jason's advocate then mentioned father's infidelity.

Jason: "I believe that information was gleaned from Susan's psychology notes". Your strategy is that this has a relevancy towards your wife's state of mind.

Jason says his perception was that her dad's infidelity "greatly upset" Susan at the time. It happened about 16 years ago.

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Prosecutor: "She was active in assisting her mom and encouraging her mom and dad to go to marriage counselling. They overcame that issue and are still happily married". Jason agrees and says they are still very happy.

Prosecutor: Surely what happened at the time cannot be linked to your infidelity and putting her in such a state of mind that she considered committing suicide? Jason: I don't agree with that. Unless you are a psychologist, not an assumption you can make.

Jason says he can't say her dad's infidelity did or didn't have a lasting effect on his wife.

Prosecutor now turns to statement that Jason made at Spier on the day of his wife's death.

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Jason wrote statement for police while his father-in-law Neville Holmes walked in and out of room at Spier on 24 July 2016.

Prosecutor: Peter Norton [brother-in-law] testified that Neville [Susan's dad] kept saying you had a fight. You also testified that Neville kept walking around

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter

This is like watching the grass grow.
 
Apologies for the radio silence. We had signal difficulties in court. Prosecutor is taking Jason through his statement.

Prosecutor wants to know why he didn't write in his statement that he wanted to visit Jolene that night. Jason says he wasn't going to sit in front of his father-in-law and write that.

Prosecutor says it's not like Susan to stop fighting and get into bed. Jason: "We had this major row for the last while. I was absolutely exhausted. It wasn't a case of allowing me to sleep. I went to sleep."

Jason says maybe his wife was also exhausted after their fight. "It had been an emotional evening". She caught me back with my mistress. It had to end some time of the night. She also had to sleep."

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would argue for hours. You expected that. "Now she got you back. What period of time are you talking that you left room and returned?" Jason says no idea.

Jason agrees about 30min passed. Prosecutor: "Now she is ready for another period of sorting you out, shouting, talking. Not going to sleep. That is how you argued."

Jason says he got into bed and went to sleep. Prosecutor: "And we must believe that?" Jason says he is telling the court what happened.

Judge says there is cellphone interference which is making it very difficult for the stenographer. People asked to switch cellphones off.

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter
 
Jason says that had police investigated "by simply picking up phone and speaking to mother-in-law and sister-in-law, I wouldn't have been labelled a wife batterer". Says they came forward with affidavits about cause of Susan's bruises.

Jason: "The State needs to ask how much investigation they did to look at both sides of the story".

Prosecutor says Jason and Desmond Daniels' statements are opposites. Jason says his wife was hanging, while Daniels says she was on the floor. "Who to believe?" prosecutor asks.

Jason says the police have got a job to do and have to do it properly. He says that had they allowed him to meet at Spier on 26 July 2016, he could have pointed out "exactly what transpired that evening". Says police had no desire after post-mortem findings.

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Jason raises his voice and speaks quickly. He says there was no desire from the police "to look for anything". "Surely as a policeman, you have to be objective. If someone is innocent, you also have to present that evidence".

Jason reveals he has been to Spier two or three times before over the years. "It is a very nice place". Says the staff have always been very professional.

Prosecutor says Daniels had no idea what was going to happen when he knocked on the hotel door that morning. Jason agrees.

Jason: "So what you are saying is you will arrest someone without presenting all the evidence and let the guy take his chances in court?" Prosecutor says his own family members questioned his story.

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Jason says police told his family he was culpable of murder and that is why his father-in-law was checking the bathroom door and mechanism. Jason: "Where did that come from? This is an hour after he arrives. How is it possible?"

Prosecutor: Her suicide came as a total shock to you and the family. Jason agrees. Prosecutor: Now they are faced with fact that you lied to them and Susan that you had a relationship with somebody else. Why would they believe you at all [about her death]?

Jason: So are you saying that if I am an adulterer, I am a murderer?
Prosecutor: There wasn't only your story.

Jason: The family's mixed emotions were completely fueled by my father-in-law being indicated that I was culpable of Susan's death? "If that was my daughter, I would react exactly the same. But that's not the point."

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Jason: Father-in-law said they allowed him into the bathroom and he tested the door. He was obviously talking to the people outside, one of the policeman, detectives outside. He was led to believe, he wasn't told.

Prosecutor: Your brother-in-law came to testify and volunteered in a frank, honest manner in a statement that you told him the words "I killed her, I killed her". Jason says that is correct.

The State says that Jason meant what he said by those words... "In a moment of weakness you spoke the truth. You did kill her". Jason: That is a very broad assumption to make. But it's not the truth.

Jason says he killed her [indirectly] but did not murder her. Prosecutor points out that the difficulty he has is that Susan is not here to speak for herself and they have to piece things together.

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Prosecutor turns to his brother-in-law's testimony that Susan never gave up and was a fighter. He says he thus finds it difficult to believe that she would commit suicide.

We now turn to when Jason went to visit a colleague's bedroom where his mistress Jolene was sitting on a single bed. Prosecutor asks if he is sure that Susan did not enter the room. Jason says he would have remembered.

Prosecutor asks if he will accept testimony of someone in the room that they were sitting and drinking wine. Jason says he didn't see alcohol in the room or people drinking.

Prosecutor points out it was very cold that night and there were fireplaces in the room. "One would expect the door to be closed because it's cold". And this is what someone in the room testified.

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Prosecutor: "You had an emotional breather. You are now there sitting on the bed, it's good to see Jolene again". Jason: "I hadn't got rid of my wife because she was in the direct vicinity. She was standing in the door shouting".

Prosecutor says that testimony from eyewitness in the room is that the door was closed. Jason walked in and sat at the edge of bed. He was quiet. Shortly afterwards, door opened and Susan called his name.

Jason says he recalls those hotel doors were opened with key card. He asks prosecutor how it is possible on his version for someone to get in without a card.

Prosecutor: "If there is a key card in the holder, then the door can open and close. When you arrived, you opened the door. And when your wife arrived, she opened in a similar fashion".

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Jason says his wife called him a few times and he left. Prosecutor tries to understand his state of mind for going into the room. Why he would leave his wife and then return to her. Jason: "I wanted to get away from Susan".

Prosecutor says the eyewitness in the room testified that Jason was reluctant to leave. He reads out exactly what she told the court: "He seemed reluctant to leave and slightly dismissive and she left. She came back once or twice there after"

Jason's lawyer said he "eventually got up and left". Jason: "Maybe he meant I hesitantly got up. I am not sure." Prosecutor says he was there and must tell court what went through his mind.

Jason: "I didn't want Susan and Jolene to have a confrontation in the room and that was my motivation to leave the room". Prosecutor says it doesn't make sense to go to room and then leave.

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Jason says he didn't want to leave the room. He admits he was trying to escape Susan.

Prosecutor now talks about when Jason returns with Susan to their hotel room, or "the lion's den".

The court listens again as Jason talks about the physical confrontation that he and Susan had while walking back to the room, which resulted in his wife falling into the flower bed.

Prosecutor wants to know why Susan would get physical with him if she had succeeded in getting her husband to return to the room. Jason: "Susan had a volatile temper. She had just caught me with my mistress. She was absolutely furious"

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter
 
Part of Pathologist Khan's report on Susan. Not fully complete as difficult to copy. A lot of injuries that Jason Rohde has managed to give excuses for during his defence.

Susan Rohde strangled and death staged: forensic expert

DL7dVBoW0AA2sDZ.jpg



DL7dfigXcAAHV6T.jpg
 
Prosecutor: "I put it to you that [with] the testimony of Dr Khan's injuries, you had to find an excuse to explain some of these injuries. This is now an opportune time, when you were walking back to your room, when she got hit by your elbow and she fell."

Prosecutor says he wants to go into quite lengthy detail about Desmond Daniels' testimony. "I am not going to finish this part of the evidence today".

The trial is adjourned until 9.30am on Monday. Jason will have the weekend to take a break from cross-examination. (The High Court doesn't usually hear criminal trials on a Friday).

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter
 
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