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

[tmar]

The Judge had something else to attend to in the afternoon. That suited Defence counsel as his car had broken down and he needed to have it repaired. OISA

As previously, these breaks were initiated by the Defence, I thought again, they were responsible.
My mistake.

 

[JudgeJudi]

What I found interesting about his testimony is that he volunteered many things about himself and things he said and did that showed him in a very poor light. A lot of this information would only have been known to himself and Susan.

You can only draw 2 inferences from this. He's either telling the truth or he's doing everything in his power to convince the court of his honesty. Of course this could all be a clever strategy either on his part or at the suggestion of his counsel. XX should be interesting.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Part 1 of Rohde's evidence in chief on 28 May

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[JudgeJudi]

Part 2 of Rohde's evidence in chief on 28 May

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[JudgeJudi]

Day 2 of Jason Rohde on the stand. Today he is expected to speak about finding his wife's body.

Defence lawyer Graham van der Spuy continues leading Jason with his evidence-in-chief. We are at the point where Susan blocked him from leaving their Spier hotel room. "I had taken off my black jacket and tie. I put a green jersey on".

Jason: "There was a verbal argument between the two of us. I indicated to her that I wanted to leave the room. She stood in front of door with back to door. I tried to open door handle with right hand. Susan would grab my hand and push it away"

Jason: "She would grab me my collar and push me away. I would grab her by the wrists and arms. I would hold her on the sides and try move her. This happened in a confined space and continued for maybe 2 minutes."

Jason: "I grabbed the front of her gown to move her out the way but she just kept moving back towards the door to block the entrance. I got out by holding her. I didn't throttle or strangle her. I moved her and was able to open the door."

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason demonstrates to court how he grabbed her by the neck to move her out the way. Stresses again that he didn't throttle her. Swings his right arm back to show how he dislodged her arm from back of his jersey.

Jason says he used the soft part of his forearm to move his wife's arm out the way but got soft side of her face. He says he "absolutely" did not injure his wife with these movements. It just made her more angry/furious.
<snipped>

Jason says he used the soft part of his forearm to move his wife's arm out the way but got soft side of her face. He says he "absolutely" did not injure his wife with these movements. It just made her more angry/furious.

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[JudgeJudi]

Susan followed Jason out the hotel room. "We were both shouting at each other. I was telling Susan to leave me alone. I can't tell you exactly what I said but it wasn't in polite language. Susan was calling me a cheat and saying I want to go to my ".

As the couple were shouting outside, in the early hours of the morning, Susan stood there in her gown and bare feet. Jason said he heard music in a room nearby and assumed it was part of the Sotheby's afterparty.

Jason Rohde explains the physical altercation that happened the night of his wife's death but denies "throttling" her. When pressed on where he grabbed her, he admits it was on her neck.

Jason: "I entered the room and Susan was right behind me. It was full of people and loud music was on. Some drank wine. All Sotheby's people. I saw Simoney de Santos, a Sea Point property broker, in the room. Her and Jolene were partners for many years."

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[JudgeJudi]

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason: "I asked her where Brendan Miller was and left. We were still arguing as I went down the stairs. Susan was still pulling me. I think she was angry with me and wanted to restrain me. She didn't want me to go to Brendan because Jolene would be there."

Jason recalls seeing a security guard and thinking at the time what he must think of their behaviour. "Susan would stand with her face right in front of me. Just screaming and very, very aggressive and very cross."

Jason: I got to Brendan's room by looking at numbers on the wall. He was standing by the fireplace, a woman was in the bedroom and Jolene was sitting on a single bed furthest from the door.

Jason: "I remember sitting on the other single bed [near Jolene] and Brendan may have asked if I want a drink. Susan was standing at the door saying: GET OUT THE ROOM. GET OUT THE ROOM. I realised I had to leave the room."

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason: I didn't see any drinks in Jolene's hand. I didn't see glasses in their hand. I didn't get a drink from Brendan. Susan remained at the door. "It was a very, very tense situation. Awkward. Embarrassing. I left with Susan."

Jason says that Susan did not say a word to Jolene. Nobody spoke to his wife. He decided he needed to go back to their hotel room. "Susan was very, very agitated and cross again. She continued pulling me and telling me what a lying, cheating I am."

Jason says that he screamed back at his wife and told her "it's enough now". He remembers Susan grabbing him and him swinging his arm backwards and yanking his shoulders to get her off.

Jason: "With my elbow I moved my arm back and distinctly remember hitting the top of her nose. I remember it gave me quite a fright. I turned and looked at her. Her nose was fine. There was no blood but I definitely made contact."

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason describes the concrete pathway they fought on. He shows how he twisted his body left and right to get her off. "I don't know if she hit her foot or tripped over it. It was a little wall. She fell onto the ledge and a little bit in the flowerbed."

Jason says he told her to stop because he had enough and the fight was going nowhere. "It just got out of hand. It was just craziness. She kept saying: My toe is bleeding." He says there was a graze above her left eyebrow but not bleeding.

Jason says he was exhausted after the confrontation. He took his clothes off and got into left side of bed with just underwear on. As she stood next to the bed and argued, he said: "We can't live like this. I am done."

Susan had mulch on her gown from flower bed. No blood from nose. "She just carried on screaming and saying the same things. She must have climbed into bed because she woke up the next morning next to me but I was exhausted."

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason: I was woken up by Susan just after 7am. She was sitting up in bed next to me and showed me her phone, saying "Look what your sent me." Jason said the message sent in the early hours said something like: "Wash your mouth out."

Jason reached for his cellphone and Brendan Miller had also sent him a message. He was asking if everything was okay. I replied: "Drama. But OK." He explains that Brendan had seen how anxious and upset he was. And that there were marital problems.

"I told her I am done. I am absolutely done. When we get back to JHB, we are going to sort this out. But I am absolutely done with this marriage. She got out bed and just looked at me. I rolled over and saw her walk towards bathroom, slamming door."

Jason: "It was sometime just before 8am. I tried the bathroom door but it was locked. In my mind's eye, I pictured Susan lying in the bath and asked her to open the door. I told her I need to shave, brush my teeth."

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason: I got into fresh clothes. Informal, casual clothes. I hadn't brushed my teeth. I went to the bathroom door, tried it and just thought Susan was lying in the bath, just saying [in her mind] "Screw you. Go there without brushing your teeth".

Jason: Her phone rang. I disconnected the call. I went back to the door constantly. I also packed my pink bag. All the time I was shouting "Susan please open the door. I need to get going. I need to go to work." And there was just no answer.

Jason: Not in a million years did I ever believe Susan would ever commit suicide. It didn't cross my mind. Not even a thought in my head. Honestly thought she was just teaching me a lesson. I didn't panic but later got a bad feeling in my gut. Intuition.

At this point, Jason phoned reception to get help opening the bathroom door. He tried nudging the door with his shoulder, kicking the door and it made a crack. "That door was absolutely solid and didn't move one single inch".

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason said very soon after that, handyman Desmond Daniels arrived at the room. He says it took him about 5min. Lawyer asks why Jason didn't open door. "It wouldn't cross my mind that I could use a teaspoon or a coin to open a bathroom door."

Jason says he is not technical and has never seen someone using item to open locked door from the outside. "I don't have that type of mind where I can look at something and think you could use something to lock it from the outside. Susan locked that door."

Jason says: "There is absolutely no truth in that" when lawyer asks him about State's allegation that he locked the bathroom door from outside.

Jason wants to demonstrate what he did with the door. The court adjourns for tea so this can be set up. Back at +-11.30am

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Breaks in the court days play havoc with memory. I just remembered a State witness said that the cord was not capable of supporting her weight. Maybe I'm watching an academy award performance.

 

[JudgeJudi]

We are back after tea time. Lawyer Graham van der Spuy asks Jason if he observed anything during the fight to indicate his wife suffered serious injury or was hurt. "No I didn't. She was 100% fine."

Jason's testimony turns to the moment that handyman Desmond Daniels arrived at his hotel room to unlock the bathroom door. He says Desmond knocked on main door and he let him in.

Jason: " I told Mr Daniels that the bathroom door was locked from the inside". He noticed he had a tool [screwdriver] in his hand. Both men stood in narrow passageway to bathroom door.

Jason: I remember him crouching down because door mechanism is quite low. He unlocked the door by way of the screwdriver. The moment he unlocked the door, he stepped backwards. I immediately put my hand to the door and opened it.

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason: The door opened a couple of inches and then it was blocked. I pushed against the door because Susan was on the back of the door. I wedged myself in.

Judge wants to know how he knew Susan was hanging on the back of the door. Jason: "I could feel. When I opened the door, the first thing I can see... can I demonstrate?"

Jason now stands in front of the bathroom door, which is held up by a court clerk. Jason crouches to show how Susan's knees were bent. "I can't tell you if knees were on ground, but her feet were. The first thing I saw were her feet".

Jason demonstrates to Judge how he found his wife hanging on back of door and picked her up.

Jason says he immediately called handyman to help him. "I just screamed."

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason explaining again what he saw through crack of door. "You could see her feet. You could see a portion of her foot."

Jason says Susan was in a crouched position when he grabbed her. "I just remember, I couldn't believe how heavy she was to pick up under my arms. It felt like a ton. It was very, very heavy."

Lawyer asks how much he weighs to indicate the struggle of lifting her. Jason says he weighed around 84kg, while his wife was around 52kg.

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason: Your immediate reaction is to call someone to help. "I was holding her with my arms under her arms and picked her up". He was facing her and had his hands on her back.

Jason says his wife was wearing a white gown. "I screamed for Mr Daniels to help me. He came through wedge in the door. Mr Daniels shouted something in Afrikaans. I think he said something like 'my hemel, my hemel'. The knot around her neck was very tight."

Jason: It was not a loose knot. It was a tight lasso, knot around her neck. Mr Daniels wiggled it with his hands and took that off her neck and lifted it off her head. I never touched that cord.

Jason says he immediately laid his wife on the floor and started chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. "I thought she was still alive because there was a lot of spit coming out of her mouth. She was still warm. As warm as I was."

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[JudgeJudi]

Jason recalls pumping her chest while she lay on her back. Her feet were towards the basin and her head towards the toilet. "I have never performed CPR in my life. I watched movies," he says, blinking furiously.

Court hears how Jason tried to perform CPR and how he thought she was coming back to life. He says the handyman left the bathroom and the next time he saw him was in court.

His lawyer asks if he is aware that Desmond Daniels spoke with a Sotheby's employee, William Lee, outside. And that Lee saw someone performing CPR in the bathroom. Jason says he never saw Lee.

Jason says that paramedics put ECG stickers on his wife's chest, checked her eyes and performed various medical procedures before declaring she was dead.

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[JudgeJudi]

A few people streamed in and out of the bathroom. Jason says someone put a blanket over Susan's body. Yael Geffen also came in, very upset

Judge Salie-Hlophe asks Jason to testify what he remembers at the time, not what he has subsequently learnt. "You have done that a few times," she points out.

Lawyer goes to the testimony of handyman Desmond Daniels. Jason says it is not possible that Daniels arrived at the bathroom at 8:15.

Desmond testified that he took a screwdriver and he opened the locked door. Lawyer asks if he opened or unlocked the door. Jason says: "Mr Daniels unlocked the door, he did not physically open the door".

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