THE man accused of having been involved in a plot to kill his lover’s husband at Gobabis in August 2013 admitted in the Windhoek High Court yesterday that he committed the murder.
“I admit that the Second Accused Person [Rachel Rittmann] and I agreed, planned and executed the killing of the deceased person [Rudolph Rittmann],” Rhyno du Preez stated in a document recording admissions made by him that was read out in court with the resumption of his and Rachel Rittmann’s trial.
Du Preez (35) admitted that he and Rittmann (48) had been involved in an extramarital affair, and that the two of them, together with his brother, during 2013 conspired to kill Rudolph Rittmann.
Du Preez’s brother, Egenhardt du Preez, testified before judge Christie Liebenberg in December last year that Rachel Rittmann started a discussion on a suggestion by her to murder her husband during a visit by her and the two brothers to a popular restaurant in Windhoek in June 2013.
In the document setting out his admissions, Du Preez also stated that Rittmann let him into her and her husband’s house at Gobabis on 23 August 2013, and guided him into a bedroom where Rudolph Rittmann lay sleeping.
In the bedroom, she used the light of her cellphone to illuminate her husband’s ankles, which he wanted to tie with cables, Du Preez stated.
He recounted that Rudolph Rittmann woke up, and a struggle ensued between the two of them. He managed to get the upper hand over Rudolph, and while holding him, he asked Rittmann to fetch a knife.
She ran to the kitchen and returned with a knife, which she handed to him, “and I stabbed the deceased person repeatedly until his body was motionless and fell to the floor”, Du Preez stated.
After visiting a service station to buy fuel and water, he and Rittmann cleaned the scene of the killing, and also put on clean clothes, Du Preez said.
He then dragged Rudolph’s body to a door where he had parked Rudolph’s bakkie, while Rittmann helped him by keeping her husband’s body away from the walls of the house to prevent his blood from being smeared on the walls, Du Preez also stated.
Rittmann helped him load her husband’s body on the bakkie, with which he then drove in the direction of Windhoek, he said. Having driven some distance, he stopped, carried Rudolph’s body to the front seat of the vehicle and strapped it in there, and then sat on his victim’s body while driving the bakkie for a further short distance, Du Preez recounted.
After again stopping, he poured fuel over the bakkie, started the engine, and watched the vehicle drive into a fence. He then set the bakkie on fire and made his way to Windhoek, Du Preez said.
He further admitted that he and Rittmann planned to use some of the money she expected to inherit from her husband to settle a theft case that a former employer of theirs had opened against them.
Du Preez also recorded that he had met Rittmann in 2012, when he was 28 years old and she was 42. He added that he had been “madly in love” with her at the time, “and was prepared to do whatever she wanted me to do for her to be happy”.
Rittmann and Du Preez were arrested in Windhoek on the morning of 1 September 2013. They were in bed together just before being arrested, Du Preez stated. Du Preez and Rittmann both denied guilt on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and defeating or obstructing the course of justice at the start of their trial in December last year.
In the wake of Du Preez’s admissions, his defence lawyer, Ileni Gebhardt, applied for his trial to be separated from Rittmann’s.
State advocate Marthino Olivier opposed the application, on which judge Liebenberg is due to give a ruling today.
Rittmann is being represented by defence lawyer Johan van Vuuren.
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