V3421 Joseph George Scheepers

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The indictment charged four young men with robbery with aggravating circumstances, rape and murder. They were Schalk Burger, Joseph Scheepers, Johannes Matthysen and Daniel du Randt. Burger was twenty years old, Scheepers twenty-one, and the other two nineteen. They had robbed Mr Jacob Wessie of his car and other possessions and had raped and murdered his female companion, Miss Ginny Goitseone.

On Friday 1 February 1985 du Randt bought a toy revolver as a present for his younger brother. He still had it with him late that evening when he and Matthysen met Burger and Scheepers outside the Tivoli Hotel in Klerksdorp for a night of drinking and playing darts. When the bar closed at eleven they had no choice but to leave.

Outside Scheepers stopped a passing motorist, Mr Johannes Mophuting, and demanded that Mophuting take him home. Burger, Matthysen and du Randt followed in Burger’s car. Mophuting stopped in front of the police station. Scheepers jumped out and got into Burger’s car. He had seen some music cassette tapes in Mophuting’s car and at Burger’s suggestion they followed Mophuting on his journey home to rob him.

But Mophuting saw them and when he arrived home he locked the doors of his car and sounded his hooter. Scheepers broke the left front window of Mophuting’s car with a rock and pointed the toy revolver at him. Mophuting ran away, but his neighbours swarmed to his aid and the four white men fled empty-handed.

As they left Jouberton they came across a BMW car parked next to the road. Mr Jacob Wessie was in the driver’s seat and Miss Ginny Goitseone was sitting in the passenger seat. Burger stopped next to the BMW and Scheepers went to Wessie’s window, pointed the toy revolver at him and shouted that he was a policeman. He ordered Wessie to open the window and when Wessie opened the driver’s window he grabbed the ignition keys. Scheepers said the BMW had been stolen and that he was going to take Wessie to the police station. He ordered Wessie into the back seat and told du Randt to get in behind Miss Goitseone. Scheepers then drove off in Wessie’s BMW and Burger and Matthysen followed in Burger’s car.

During the journey du Randt had held the toy revolver against Wessie’s neck while fondling Miss Goitseone’s breasts with his other hand. Scheepers asked du Randt, ‘Nou wie gaan met die meisie begin?’ Scheepers stopped in a deserted cul-de-sac among some smallholdings about fifteen kilometres away. There Scheepers and Burger subjected Wessie to a prolonged assault, robbed him of his money and removed his car radio-cassette player while du Randt and Matthysen took turns to rape Miss Goitseone. ‘Die meisie is lekker,’ du Randt said when he returned to the BMW. Scheepers and du Randt tried to force Wessie into the boot of the BMW. Wessie noticed the first three registration letters – DLL – of Burger’s car. He pretended to get into the boot but instead suddenly ran off into the dark. He was pursued in vain by Burger, Matthysen and du Randt. They returned to the cars without their captive. They now had a problem. Wessie could identify them and Scheepers’ fingerprints were all over the BMW.

Wessie hid behind some bushes and saw the two cars being driven away a short while later. Scheepers, in the presence of Matthysen, had forced Miss Goitseone into the boot of the BMW before driving off. She was still alive.

Some eleven kilometres away they stopped. Burger raised the bonnet of his car and Scheepers sucked some petrol from the fuel supply to the carburettor into his mouth and spat it out on the upholstery of the BMW. He made several trips. At one stage Miss Goitseone was heard to call, ‘My baas, my baas!’ She was screaming and pleading, but to no avail. Burger started up his car and Scheepers set the BMW alight. The four men drove off in Burger’s car and stopped on a bridge. Burger and Scheepers looked back towards the BMW to see whether it had caught alight but they could not see anything from where they were.

Matthysen remonstrated with them, saying that what they had done was murder and that he wanted to have nothing to do with it. Scheepers’ response was that Matthysen had also hit Wessie. He added, ‘Ek voel fokkol vir die lewe.’ After dropping Matthysen at a tearoom near his parents’ home and with du Randt sleeping on the back seat, Burger and Scheepers returned to the BMW. They saw that the vehicle had been completely gutted by the fire. They took du Randt home and went their separate ways.

Wessie eventually found his way to the police station. The police found the BMW with Miss Goitseone’s charred body in the boot the next day, Saturday 2 February 1985. They had no leads until Matthysen arrived at the police station late the next evening. He handed himself over and told the police what had happened. The others were arrested the next day. Scheepers and Burger had already fled 750 kilometres to Durban and had to be brought all the way back for their trial.

Wessie had suffered numerous injuries and his clothes were covered in blood. Miss Goitseone had died of smoke inhalation or carbon poisoning before her body had been rendered unrecognisable as that of a human being.

On 17 September 1985 the four accused were convicted of robbery with aggravating circumstances. All four were also convicted of rape, with Matthysen and du Randt declared guilty as principal offenders and Burger and Scheepers as accomplices. On the murder charge Burger and Scheepers were convicted while Matthysen and du Randt were found not guilty.

The next day the Court heard evidence and submissions on the question of extenuating circumstances with regard to the murder conviction. A psychiatrist in private practice gave evidence and explained his findings and conclusions. His written reports on Burger and Scheepers were placed before the Court. A State psychiatrist concurred with the findings and conclusions in every respect. The opinion of the psychiatrists was that Burger had not suffered from any mental illness at the time of the examination, nor had he at the time the crimes were committed. Scheepers, on the other hand, was found to suffer from an antisocial personality defect, but no mental defect as contemplated by the law was detected. He was a psychopath.

The Court found no extenuating circumstances and Scheepers and Burger were sentenced to death on the murder charge. On 20 September 1985 the Court reconvened to pass sentence on the remaining charges. For the aggravated robbery on Wessie each of the men was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment. For the rape Burger and Scheepers were sentenced to death a second time and Matthysen and du Randt each to sixteen years imprisonment.

Scheepers and Burger appealed. Their death sentences on the rape charge were set aside, but their death sentences on the murder charge were confirmed.

On 20 November 1987 Burger and Scheepers were called from their cells at Maximum Security Prison and the Deputy Sheriff advised them that the State President had extended mercy to Burger but not to Scheepers. Burger was to serve life imprisonment instead and Scheepers was to be hanged on the twenty-sixth.

The night before the execution Scheepers’ family launched an application for a stay of execution. The application papers included affidavits by Scheepers and his father. However, the application was hopeless, devoid of merit, and the Judge dismissed it out of hand. The team of lawyers acting for Scheepers turned their pleas for mercy to the State President, but to no avail.

Scheepers was hanged the next day. He was twenty-three years old.