A new prosecutor has been assigned to the case of a man accused of killing a policeman responding to a burglary at his home.
|||Cape Town - A new prosecutor has been assigned to the case involving a Constantia man accused of killing a police officer who responded to a reported burglary at his home.
On Thursday, Sean Meuwese appeared in the dock at the Wynberg Regional Court, charged with the murder of Constable Pheelo Lucas Masiu.
Meuwese has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and to a charge of pointing a firearm at another police officer at the scene.
Earlier, the court heard that Meuwese had heard a noise in his house and had gone upstairs, armed with his licensed firearm.
A scuffle between him and an intruder took place. Soon afterwards, the police arrived and headed upstairs. A shot went off, killing Masiu.
It is alleged that police officers responded to the break-in at Meuwese’s Van Brede Street home after his friend called the police at his request.
The State has charged Meuwese with Masiu’s murder, but it will be Meuwese’s defence that the intruder fired the fatal shot during the scuffle.
On Thursday, magistrate Gavin du Plessis postponed the matter after the court heard that the previous prosecutor had been transferred to Gauteng.
Prosecutor Thabo Ntela is set to take over.
The matter was ready to continue with the next witness, Captain Candice Brown, in court.
Defence lawyer William Booth, however, said that he had asked the State to advise him “timeously” regarding witnesses to be called and that he had received a message that the State was calling Brown earlier that morning.
Booth said he also had plans to call a forensic expert and needed to make arrangements with his witness.
“In light of this it would be impossible to continue,” Booth told the court.
Du Plessis said: “It’s very difficult for the defence to prepare if we don’t know who is going to be called in advance.”
He postponed the matter to February 28 and preliminary trial dates were set for August 6 and 7.
Cape Argus