CASSIDY Hartzenberg, who killed his aunt and attended her funeral as a pallbearer, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Romay Van Rooyen, who was a magistrate at Vredenburg Magistrates Court, was found dead in her house in Muizenberg on 10 September 2022. Her vehicle was found abandoned near Mitchell’s Plain the following day.
Her nephew Cassidy, who was 18 at the time, was arrested in connection with her murder two days after her funeral.
At the funeral, Cassidy (20) was the pallbearer and was one of the people who stood next to the coffin. He looked emotional at the funeral as many people stood and talked about his aunt.
During the trial, Cassidy confessed that he lost his temper after his aunt refused to give him money for a job application. He told the court that he visited his aunt and asked for money while sitting in the dining room, but she refused.
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She then walked to her bedroom where Cassidy followed and strangled her from behind until she was no longer breathing. Van Rooyen tried to fight back, but Cassidy overpowered him. He stayed in the house overnight and left early in the morning driving Van Rooyen’s vehicle, which he later dumped at Jakes Gerwel Drive in Mitchells Plain.
In court, evidence was established that the killing was through strangulation.
On Friday, 1 March, Cassidy was sentenced to effective 20 years in prison for murder after entering into a plea and sentence agreement in terms of Section 105A of Act 51 of 1977.
On the charges of motor vehicle theft, the court sentenced him to six years in jail with two suspended. The motor vehicle theft case will be concurrent with the murder case.
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