CAPE TOWN- The murder trial of Jason Rohde will continue on Monday at the Western High Court with forensic pathologist Dr Reggie Perumal who is expected to return to the dock for his cross examination.
Rohde stands accused of murdering his wife, Susan, she was found dead in a hotel room in July 2016 and Rohde was later arrested for her death after the state said the death was not a suicide as previously thought.
Last week forensic pathologist Perumal testified that Susan’s injuries were consistent with ligature strangulation, in other words hanging. Rohde has maintained that his wife committed suicide.
However Perumal could not say that it was categorically a suicide by hanging.
Paarl chief state pathologist Dr Deidre Abrahams called Perumal testimony a “hired gun” for the defense during the trial.
The state’s version is that murder accused Rohde smothered his wife Susan in an attempt to get her to “shut up” and then staged her suicide.
State advocate Louis van Niekerk said, “Based on the facts, you didn’t go to sleep that night. You continued arguing and the only way to shut her up was by smothering her with a cushion,”
“When you realised that she was lifeless, you staged her suicide.”
But Rohde stuck to his story and responded, “With all my faults, I am not a killer.”
Photo Credit- TimesLIVE
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