Gardener guilty of killing J-Bay businesswoman
2010/02/09
http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=528907

IN the last minutes of her life, Jeffreys Bay businesswoman Cecile Potgieter prayed for the teenage girlfriend of the 27-year-old gardener who murdered her.

The exact details of the prayer were not made public, but this formed part of the 17-year- old girl’s in-camera evidence.

It was read out by Judge Jannie Eksteen in the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday before he convicted Franklin Stuurman, of Garnaal Street, Jeffreys Bay, of murder and robbery.

Potgieter, 51, died on February 20 last year. The court found that on the day of the murder Stuurman went to Potgieter’s house accompanied by his minor girlfriend, and viciously murdered the Pertiwi art gallery owner.

Potgieter was stabbed in the neck and chest and was fatally hit over the head with a blunt object. The teenager turned state witness and testified against Stuurman, who was employed as a part-time gardener for Potgieter at her Gazelle Street home.

Eksteen accepted the girl’s evidence, describing it as “clear and concise”.

The girl, 16 at the time, said hours prior to the murder Stuurman had been smoking dagga and drinking and had bragged to a group of friends that he would “receive a lot of money”.

On the morning of the attack, Stuurman and his girlfriend went to Potgieter’s home. They rang the doorbell and when she opened the gate, Stuurman threatened her with a knife. Potgieter later transferred R10000 via internet banking to Stuurman’s Post Office account.

The transfer was done at 10.32am and the panic button was pressed two minutes later.

The court heard how the teenager went to the kitchen to fetch a cloth which was used to gag Potgieter, while Stuurman tied her up with cables.

The cloth was forced into Potgieter’s mouth in a desperate bid to silence her, but she spat it out and asked the girl to go and fetch her watch from a table.

“As I went to fetch the watch, Potgieter pressed the panic button. I ran outside and Stuurman came back from ransacking the house,” the judge read out.

Eksteen found the girl was a credible witness, but could not say the same about Stuurman who constantly contradicted himself during the trial.

He was found hiding in the ceiling of Potgieter’s house but kept on saying he was unable to remember how he got there and denied killing her.

Advocate Kobus Brisley requested a correctional supervision officer’s report before sentencing.

The trial was postponed to March 17. Stuurman remains in custody.