Cape Town - Judgment is expected in the third bail application of the 28s Mobsters gang who the State is set to prove wiped out an entire family, threatened witnesses and had police on their payroll.
Elcardo Adams and Alfonso Cloete, a former police officer, and 12 others are facing trial for their alleged role in the murders of businessman, Hamphire “Hempie” Brown, his son, Corne Brown and a woman relative, Chevonne de Wet.
Both Adams and Cloete were denied bail early last year.
The trial is expected to take place between May 23 and June 15.
In their final fight for bail to be denied, the State has contended that Adams and Cloete are facing serious crimes and could face life imprisonment.
The State has called for bail to be denied, as the accused are a threat to witnesses and that they are potentially aware of who the witnesses are, who are set to testify during the trial, and that they possibly had police on their payroll.
Judgment in the bail application has been set for April 21 at the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court.
The group are facing 60 charges and there are 134 witnesses, 21 of whom will have their names withheld when the trial begins.
The accused are facing charges ranging from murder, attempted murder, possession of explosives, the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
The State is set to prove that the accused were identified via a 204 witness (State witness) as positive for planning the murder of Brown, and that one of the co-accused had given a confession which was corroborated by the 204 witness.
The State is also determined to prove that the gang was involved in the four attempts on the life of Corne Brown before murdering him in February 2020.
In February 2018, Hempies Brown was shot after gunmen opened fire on him and his wife Wendy in the parking lot of their bottle store in Kleinvlei.
The couple owned Hempie’s Bottle Store and Club Wendy’s in Kleinvlei, and Hempies’ bulletproof car was riddled with bullets.
They then targeted Wendy’s vehicle and her husband attempted to block the hail of bullets which hit his windscreen and he died in hospital.
De Wet, also a relative, had visited the family’s home with her three-year-old daughter in 2018 to buy electricity, when gunmen opened fire on her as she sat in her car.
De Wet was shot in the neck and died at the scene.
The toddler escaped the shooting unharmed.
Corne was performing at a festival at the Prince Alfred Hamlet Sports Ground in Ceres on February 1, 2020 when he was shot and later died in hospital.
Weekend Argus