The pair were charged in connection with 21-year-old Horner’s murder, whose body was discovered tied to a pole earlier this month in Paul Roux.
FILE: Sekola Matlaletsa and Sekwetje Mahlamba, the two suspects accused of murdering Brendin Horner, appear at the Senekal Magistrates Court on 16 October 2020. Picture: Abigail Javier/EWN
SENEKAL – Two men accused of killing Free State farm manager Brendin Horner are expected to find out on Thursday what the Senekal Magistrates Court has decided regarding their bail application.
The pair were charged in connection with 21-year-old Horner’s murder, whose body was discovered tied to a pole earlier this month in Paul Roux.
The State cited, among others, the accused’s previous brushes with the law as well as their close proximity to the Lesotho border as reasons to deny them bail fearing they could abscond.
Despite prosecutors admitting that the DNA found in Horner’s car did not match that of one of the accused, they were still confident of a strong case.
The State relied on other evidence including the bloody pair of jeans that were found at Sekwetje Mahlamba’s home. He claims he was slaughtering a sheep.
Mahlamba and his co-accused Sekola Matlaletsa were allegedly also seen walking away from the crime scene the morning after Horner was killed in wet clothes stained with blood.
But the men had alibis in the form of their family members who claimed they were home at the time the farm manager was killed.
The pair’s previous and pending cases, including stock theft and robbery, were also used by prosecutors to argue against the granting of bail.
WATCH: DNA disparity as Senekal murder suspects back in court for bail hearing
