Pretoria woman, 81, found dead at home allegedly strangled, stabbed with garden fork

Jade-Lee Natasha Smit and Lucas Mmnonwa briefly appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Friday, where their matter was postponed to next week.
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Yahoo

2 hours ago

• Yahoo

Karen Read learns her fate in second trial. See timeline of John O' Keefe murder case.

After two trials, hours of testimony and impassioned protests on both sides of the case, Karen Read has been found not guilty of killing her Massachusetts police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe. The jury found Read not guilty on two more serious charges: second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. She was found guilty of operating a vehicle under the influence and sentenced to one year's probation. A 12-person jury handed down the verdict on June 18 after roughly 20 hours of deliberating and more than 30 days of testimony, marking a conclusion in the case that captured nationwide attention through years of court proceedings. Read's first trial ended in a hung jury last year. O'Keefe died in Canton, Massachusetts, a suburb 15 miles south of Boston, after being found unresponsive on a fellow officer's lawn on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors alleged Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV and left him for dead. Read's defense claimed a cover-up by some of O'Keefe's fellow officers. The 45-year-old pleaded not guilty to three charges: second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Here's a full timeline of the case, as reported by USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network. Catch up on Karen Read trial Who is Karen Read and why is she on trial again? Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, his girlfriend Karen Read and a group of other friends, including fellow officers, went out drinking at C.F. McCarthy's bar in Canton, Massachusetts at around 9 p.m. A major snowstorm had begun. Around 11 p.m., the group moved to the nearby Waterfall Bar & Sign up for USA TODAY's Witness true crime series After leaving the bar, a group decided to meet at the house of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston Police Department officer. Read drove O'Keefe to the home, despite having been drinking, which she admitted in interviews later. Between 12:15 and 12:45 a.m., multiple witnesses inside the home reported seeing a dark SUV outside. Read said she dropped O'Keefe off and watched him enter the home, while witnesses inside the home said that he never entered. Read began calling and texting O'Keefe to see if they would be staying, but did not receive a response. She returned to his house and continued calling him, to no response. Around 5 a.m., O'Keefe's niece called Jennifer McCabe, one of his friends who had been with the group earlier that night. The niece said O'Keefe hadn't returned home and Read thought she had left him at the Waterfall, McCabe testified. By 5:30 a.m., McCabe, Read and another friend, Kerry Roberts, went out to look for O'Keefe. Around 6 a.m., the women spotted O'Keefe lying unresponsive in the snow on Albert's lawn. Phone records show McCabe Googled "hos (sic) long to die in cold" at some point that morning. McCabe said Read asked her to search it when they found O'Keefe's body; the defense said she searched it hours before his body was found. First responders were called. Upon their arrival, McCabe and a paramedic testified in both trials that Read said, "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him." However, Read — and McCabe's previous testimony to a grand jury — said she instead asked, "Could I have hit him?" O'Keefe was taken to an area hospital and pronounced dead at 7:59 a.m. According to the medical examiner's autopsy of O'Keefe's body, his cause of death was consistent with blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia, with no "obvious signs of an altercation or a fight." O'Keefe's manner of death was ruled 'undetermined.' Prosecutors later alleged Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, killing him. The defense said other cops beat him up and framed her for his killing, citing marks on his arms resembling those of an animal attack. Read is arrested and charged with motor vehicle homicide, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death. She pleaded not guilty the following day and was released after posting $50,000 cash bail. O'Keefe's funeral is held at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Braintree, Massachusetts. Hundreds of people, including dozens of Boston police officers, gathered to pay their respects, and a large American flag hung outside the church. "Moving forward, I will do my best to continue his legacy of caring and supporting others ... even though I know I will never come close to the way he did," Paul O'Keefe said in the eulogy for his brother. Read is indicted by a grand jury on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She pleaded not guilty at Norfolk Superior Court and posted $100,000 bail. First Karen Read trial See a full timeline of key moments in first John O'Keefe murder trial The first trial of Karen Read in the murder of John O'Keefe began with jury selection on April 16, 2024. Opening statements were delivered in the case on April 29, 2024, with testimony beginning that day. After nearly two months of testimony, the prosecution rested its case on June 21, 2024. The defense rested its case three days later, on June 24, 2024. On June 25, 2024, both sides delivered closing arguments, and the jury began deliberations. After five days of deliberations, on July 1, 2024, Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial after the jury said they were "deeply divided." Read's defense attorneys filed a motion seeking to dismiss the charges for second-degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident with injury or death. The attorneys said the jury had agreed unanimously that Read was not guilty of those charges, so a retrial on those counts would violate double jeopardy protections. Prosecutors argued that the defense had the chance to object to the declaration of a mistrial at the time and did not. Cannone ruled Read could be retried on all charges. Read's defense team later appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to review the petition. O'Keefe's estate filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Plymouth Superior Court against Read and Canton bars C.F. McCarthy's and the Waterfall. The suit is seeking at least $50,000 in damages and alleges that Read "outrageously created a false narrative." Read's counsel filed a motion to stay the civil case until the end of the criminal case. Judge William White Jr. ordered a pause on any other discovery directly related to Read in November 2024. The second trial began with jury selection on April 1. The selection process took 10 days, with hundreds of people being summoned to Norfolk Superior Court during that timeframe. Nine women and nine men were seated on the jury, including six who would ultimately serve as alternates. They were told the case would take between six to eight weeks. Prosecutor Hank Brennan's opening statements recounted a paramedic who said he heard Read say, "I hit him. I hit him. I hit him." "It was at that time that she, the defendant, admitted what she had done that night. That she had hit John O'Keefe," Brennan said. "John O'Keefe was killed by the actions and conduct of the defendant Karen Read." Defense attorney Alan Jackson's opening arguments started with, "There was no collision with John O'Keefe." Jackson went on to say the police investigation was marred by "bias," "incompetence" and "deceit." Two witnesses took the stand on the first day, including Roberts and one of the paramedics who responded to the scene. More than 40 witnesses testified over 30 days in the second Read trial. Here's a full list: After 30 days of testimony, the prosecution and defense laid out their closing arguments. Brennan started by laying out the commonwealth's case in three sentences: 'She was drunk. She hit him. And she left him to die." He told jurors that Read and O'Keefe had a 'toxic relationship,' asserting that the data presented in the case backs Read as the sole perpetrator for O'Keefe's death. Jackson's closing arguments also started with a pointed statement: 'There was no collision. There was no collision." He said they were being asked to 'stare down injustice' and were the 'last line of defense between an innocent woman and a system that has tried to break her.' Cannone read the jury instructions for their deliberations and the group had about two hours to begin discussing the case. The jury returned on June 16 for a full day of deliberations. The following day, they asked four questions of the judge: The first question asked about the time frame for the operating under the influence charge. The second question asked whether Read's video interviews are evidence and how they can be considered. The third question asked whether convicting on a lesser charge would be a conviction on the overriding count. The fourth question asked whether they would be considered a hung jury if they found Read not guilty on two charges but couldn't agree on a third. Around 2 p.m. local time on June 18, the jury notified a court officer that they had reached a verdict. Before the parties were called back into the courtroom, however, the jury reversed course and said they had not reached a verdict. Shortly after Cannone announced that the initial verdict slip would not constitute a final say from the jury, they came to a decision. After just under 20 hours of deliberating, the 12-person jury found Read not guilty on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. She was found guilty of operating a vehicle under the influence and sentenced to one year's probation. Cheers erupted from outside the courthouse as the clerk read the charges shortly before 3 p.m. local time. Read hugged her legal counsel, while O'Keefe's family quickly left the courtroom. Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Karen Read timeline: Key moments in John O'Keefe murder case

Washington Post

3 hours ago

• Washington Post

R. Kelly claims prison officials plotted to kill him. Judge denies his release

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A judge has denied singer R. Kelly 's request to be freed from prison, saying she lacks jurisdiction to consider the convicted sex offender's allegations that federal prison officials plotted to murder him . U.S. District Judge Martha M. Pacold canceled Friday's scheduled arguments in Chicago, and instead issued a five-page ruling denying his emergency request to serve his time on home detention during a temporary furlough.

News24

4 hours ago

• News24

Fraudulent fuel scheme busted: Bogus eThekwini employee caught refuelling private car

A man impersonating an eThekwini Municipality employee was arrested for fraudulently refuelling vehicles using City resources. The suspect allegedly admitted to earning R2 000 daily as part of a fuel theft scheme involving privately owned vehicles. The City uncovered significant financial losses as the vehicle refuelled at an amount of R78 000 daily. A man purporting to be an eThekwini Municipality employee was caught fraudulently filling diesel at one of the petrol stations used by the City's fleet. The man was arrested after a tip-off from the Municipal City Fleet Directorate, which noted that municipal vehicles were refuelling more than ten times daily. The City said the suspect, dressed in a municipal uniform, admitted he was not a municipality employee. He allegedly revealed he was hired by a private individual who paid him R2 000 daily. Forensic investigators from the City discovered that a fuel master (automated refuelling dispenser) belonging to the water and sanitation directorate had been used to fuel privately owned cars. This fuel master was linked to a City vehicle that had been stationary for a long time. 'The suspect had duplicated the number plate and branding on the side of the [stationary] car's doors to make it appear similar to other municipal vehicles,' the City said. Its director of integrity and investigations, Jimmy Ngcobo, added municipal employees were colluding with external individuals to commit fraud and corruption. 'The culprit had four vehicles fitted with 750-litre fuel tanks at the base of each single-cab van. Diesel was stored in these tanks and then resold,' he said. 'Each vehicle generated approximately R78 000 a day.' Ngcobo added the suspect made daily rounds, filling diesel at more than 15 petrol stations across the city. 'The municipality has suffered a significant financial loss, which is why we are calling on various stakeholders to report fraud and corruption whenever they witness it,' he said.