Beer bottle linked to fatal blows

Graphic details of injuries sustained by a Jeffreys Bay man on the night he was brutally attacked and killed for money were laid bare in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday.

Testifying in the case against Renaldo Kamoetoe, 27, and Remeo Booysen, 21 – accused of bludgeoning to death Jonathan Zane Hayward, 29 – Dr Gregory Hanslo said open fractures to the nose and of the skull possibly caused by a full beer bottle were more than likely the cause of death.

“A beer bottle, especially if full, could have caused the fractures, and other superficial cuts [which] would have caused significant blood loss,” Hanslo said.

It is alleged that on the night of April 28 2017, Kamoetoe, Booysen and a third accused, Montevino Zeeland, 19, accosted Hayward at a sports bar in Jeffreys Bay.

It is further alleged that the men assaulted Hayward outside the bar before dragging him about 90m to the back of a building, where they stripped him before assaulting him with a beer bottle and a rock, leaving him for dead.

His body was found by a passerby the next day between a bottle store and a safe house in Dolphin Street, Pellsrus.

Shortly before the trial started on Wednesday, Zeeland was acquitted on the charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Booysen and Kamoetoe, both of Jeffreys Bay, pleaded not guilty and did not enter a plea explanation.

Constable Dumisani Justice Mnyada, the first respondent at the scene, told the court on Thursday that when he arrived, he noticed blood stains near the bar and a trail which led to Hayward’s body.

“I observed blood on the face of the deceased and blood at the [bar] scene.

“When I observed the blood trail to where the body was found, it came to mind that everything began there [at the bar],” Mnyada said.

Shown crime scene photographs by prosecutor Garth Baartman, Hanslo said it was possible that Hayward had been attacked at the bar first and then dragged to where his body was dumped, based on the amount of blood at the scene and the type of injuries.

“It is obvious [Hayward] was moved, either he was picked up or dragged.

“It could be possible that the majority of the attack happened at the [scene where the body was found].

“The pool of blood at [the bar] could have been from the nasal fracture and the skull fracture and it would have caused the greatest amount of blood loss,” Hanslo said.

Hanslo testified that Hayward died of blunt-force trauma to the face and head and had sustained a number of other injuries.

He had lacerations to the left temple and his face as well as contusions to his abdomen and internal injuries to his kidneys and other organs.

“A rock with possibly blood on it near the body could have caused the injuries that led to death.

“Contusions to the abdomen could have been caused by a blunt object, a foot or a shoe could have caused the contusions,” Hanslo said.

He had also noted abrasions and superficial cuts were indicative of Hayward’s body being dragged.

It was likely that Hayward had not died instantly following the attack, but his survival period would have been significantly less considering the fractures to the skull and nose.

“I think [Hayward] would have moved with great difficulty, he would not have been able to get up and walk,” Hanslo said.

Under cross-examination by Booysen’s defence counsel, advocate Robyn O’Brien, Hanslo conceded that Hayward’s head and face injuries could have been caused by other objects and not only a bottle or rock.

The case continues.