Murder accused Kristina Adler sobbed on the stand yesterday as the prosecution highlighted the lies she had been fed by her former common-law husband and co-accused, Jens Leunberg.
State advocate Marius Stander then pushed the German national to concede that it could only have been Leunberg who had sent incriminating e-mails from her account.
Stander said Leunberg had lied to her about owning a construction company in Germany, had lied about managing 600 employees, and had further lied about owning a mansion back home.
“I am going to explain to you why you are experiencing problems,” Stander said to an emotional Adler in the Port Elizabeth High Court.
“You are trying to create the impression that Jens was a man of material means.”
The couple are accused of murdering Jeffreys Bay businessman and fellow German national Claus Schroeder in August 2009.It is alleged that Adler and Leunberg tried to defraud Schroeder out of the sale of his Thornhill farm, Owvanhuk.
When he found out about the alleged scam and went to confront the couple, he was killed. His body was never found.
While Adler maintained that an application to register her business Thornhill Tourism Ubuntu Activities CC was never sent by her, Stander said the only reasonable explanation then had to be that Leunberg had sent the e-mails from her account.
The plan was for Adler to offer horse-riding lessons and lodging to tourists from the Owvanhuk farm.
Stander said not only did the author of the e-mails have access to Adler’s personal account, whoever typed the e-mail – predominantly in German – must have known the intricate details of the business plan.
He said it would seem Leunberg was living his own life and had excluded Adler from his plans.
Adler returns to the stand today.