Pic: Siyabonga Sesant
There's been a dramatic twist in the case of Gqeberha businessman and murder accused Arnold Terblanche after one of his co-accused indicated that he wants to turn state's witness.
This emerged in the city's magistrate's court on Friday where Terblanche, Dylan Cullis and Reinhard Leach made another court appearance.
They're accused of conspiring to kill Terblanche’s estranged wife Vicki, whose body was found in a shallow grave in Greenbushes in October 2021.
Of the three men, Terblanche is doing all he can to be freed on bail while both Cullis and Leach earlier abandoned their bids for bail.
Terblanche had petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal an earlier judgment that also denied him bail. A judgment on that matter is expected on Tuesday October 4.
On Friday, the grey-haired 55-year-old alleged murder mastermind looked exhausted as he stepped out from the holding cells and walked into the dock with his two co-accused.
Wearing a grey long-sleeved sweatshirt and blue jeans, he kept adjusting his glasses and nervously looked back at his girlfriend Krystal Wiggill who was seated in the front row of the public gallery.
Wiggill had not missed any one of Terblanche’s court appearances since his arrest.
On Friday, state prosecutor Marius Stander said Cullis’ plea and possible sentence agreement will be decided once the state has had time to study the large volume of Whatsapp messages between Cullis and Terblanche that has been extracted from Cullis' iPhone.
Stander said with cyber laws having changed recently the state’s had to apply for a court order to access some of the downloaded and deleted information on the phone.
He said this could result in a separation of trial when the state makes its decision known on the 28th of October.
Stander said it’s also when an indictment would be handed to Cullis and the case possibly moving to the High Court.
