On the day Jayde Panayiotou was shot and killed, she was in a vulnerable crouching position, a crime scene expert told the Port Elizabeth High Court on Tuesday.
Warrant Officer Phillip Bekker testified for the second consecutive day during the trial involving Jayde’s husband Christopher Panayiotou and his two co-accused Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko. The three are facing charges which include murder following the discovery of Jayde’s body in a bushy area on the outskirts of Kwanobuhle on April 22 last year.
The State alleges the school teacher was shot twice through the back and once through the left side of her head. According to the prosecution, businessman Panayiotou arranged a hit on his wife because she was a financial burden.
Close-up visuals of the school teacher’s head and body injuries were again shown in court on Tuesday. Other slides showed her body movements at the time she was shot.
Re-constructed pictures of her body movements shown in court were shown along with Bekker’s opinion that Jayde was at first in a crouching position. He then recorded a backward movement, a spine and head movement and her final position showed her lying with her back flat to the ground.
Bekker said that Jayde’s torso was in a lower position at the time she was shot and this was indicative of mud stains on the lower part of her track pants.
“Blood stains on the deceased’s shirt, the flow of blood towards the neck area indicates that her torso was definitely not upright,†said Bekker.
Bekker said that blood on Jayde’s right shoulder was also a factor which supported a crouching position at the time the shots were fired.
For the first time pictures showing the inside of Jayde and Christopher’s home at the Stellen Glen Complex were displayed in court. The lounge area, kitchen and a room showing Jayde’s dressing table, as well as personal items such as a hair brush and make up, were displayed.
Her husband, Christopher, whom she had known since high school, showed no visible signs of emotion.
It is alleged that Panayiotou paid Luthando Siyoni, a bouncer from his Infinity nightclub, to hire hitman Sizwe Vumazonke to kidnap and kill Jayde. Vumazonke has since died.
The State alleges that Nenembe assisted Vumazonke to kidnap and murder Jayde at the behest of her husband.
The accused face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances and unlawful possession of firearm and ammunition. The men have pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them.
Panayiotou, who was arrested shortly after his wife’s murder more than a year ago, faces an additional charge of defeating the ends of justice.
Sibeko was the last suspect to be arrested, 15 months after the murder, and has apparently been linked through cellphone mapping to being present outside Jayde’s complex in the days before her murder. However, his exact role in the events is still unclear.
– African News Agency (ANA)
