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A Gauteng man who shot and killed his own son, whom he thought was a thief, says that the death of his son is enough punishment.
Coert Kruger, 52, was reacting to the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria’s ruling that a heavier sentence would be imposed after the accidental shooting of his son, also Coert, 30, in March 2019.
Kruger received a suspended prison sentence after the National Fiscal Authority (NPA) successfully appealed his initial sentence.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria upheld the appeal against Kruger’s initial precautionary and discharge judgment on September 13, 2019. Under the new sentence, Kruger now faces an eight-year prison sentence, suspended for five years .
An emotional Kruger told Rapport that he was grateful that the matter had been concluded.
“It doesn’t make things easier, but now we can start a new phase of reconstruction after that fateful day,” he said.
“My family and I find it difficult to deal with what happened. The pain persists, but we try to focus on the positive.”
Kruger’s attorney, David Mey, told Rapport that they accepted the ruling.
Figure moving on the roof
The shooting occurred on March 22, 2019 when Coert Jr broke into a house on his small property near Vanderbijlpark.
The alarm went off, so Kruger and a private security company went to investigate.
READ | NPA appeal leads to harsher sentence for Gauteng man who killed his son
Kruger stood outside the house and saw a figure moving on the roof. It was dark and a searchlight was used to try to locate the person.
Kruger then fired a shotgun in the general direction of the figure and heard his son’s voice, expressing pain.
Realizing what had happened, Kruger contemplated the suicide, the court heard during his trial.
According to Vanderbijlpark police spokesman Sergeant Gertrude Makhale, Kruger was arrested before his son’s body could be removed from the roof.
Drug addict
In 2019, Netwerk24 reported that Coert Jr was a drug addict who ran away from a facility he had entered for rehabilitation in December 2018.
After the shooting, stolen jewelry was found in his possession.
In September last year, Kruger was released without notice. Her son’s death was enough punishment, magistrate Robert Button said.
The State appealed to the Superior Court, alleging that the “sentence was surprisingly inappropriate.”
The court found that the first sentence was based on an overemphasis on the effect of the crime on the defendant’s psyche.
“The court underestimated the fact that the defendant fired a firearm in the direction of the deceased without any imminent danger or threat to his own life as there was no evidence that the deceased was armed,” found judge Elmarie van der Schyff.
The NPA accepted the court’s decision.
– Compiled by Riaan Grobler
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