MURDERED: Hashim Dennis, 75, was washing before prayers when the robbers struck
Image: Supplied
A cold-blooded murder orchestrated by the son-in-law of a well-known Northpine oupa resulted in one of the attackers being convicted of murder and two charges of attempted murder.
Brent Williams, who hired two hitmen to attack his in-laws, died shortly before the conclusion of his murder trial before the Western Cape High Court.
One of the killers, Reagan Davids, was meanwhile convicted last week, while the third perpetrator is still unknown.
On 31 January 2020, devout Muslim Hashim Dennis, 75, was saying his morning prayers when two men entered their home and attacked him and his wife, 70-year-old Kulsoem.
Kulsoem played dead after Davids and his accomplice attacked her and she was helpless to stop them beating her husband to death.
The court heard that there were tensions in the home environment that led Williams to obtain hitmen to kill his in-laws to “neutralise” his marital problems.
He and his wife Ibtisaan Dennis lived in the same house, but in different bedrooms. His in-laws, Hashim Dennis, 75, and his wife of 47 years, 70-year-old Kulsoem Dennis, lived in a flat on the premises.
Ibtisaan, the mother of Williams’ two children, narrowly escaped a similar fate by a knife when she confronted the intruders. She, however, managed to lock herself and her children inside the house.
Although Williams and Davids denied any involvement in the attacks, Williams was captured on the CCTV surveillance cameras, dropping off the two men close to his home on the morning of the attack
Judge Gayaat da Silva Salie said Kulsoem Dennis and the deceased were attacked, with the severity of the injuries to both indicative of the intent to kill them.
Although the television set was moved from the wall fitting and a bicycle moved in an attempt to make it look like a burglary, the intruders left only with cell phones. This indicates that they were disturbed and had to escape over the wall.
The accused could not adequately explain the overwhelming evidence implicating them as the perpetrators.
The only reasonable inference to be drawn is that Davids was one of the killers who broke into the house, having been hired by Williams, the judge said.