Durban — A State witness has described how there was screaming and crying in the bedroom where a mother had been stabbed and killed allegedly by her son.

“Uncle Andy shouted from inside come see what's happened. Myself, my mom and dad rushed there he opened the door and they (parents) rushed in they were frantic and followed Andy. When Uncle Andy opened the burglar gate he had a towel around him and his shirt was partially buttoned. He was barefoot and left bloody footprints where he was walking.

His shirt had a bit of blood on the bottom,” said Sanjeev Ravidutt while on the stand in the Durban Regional Court on Thursday.

He is the second State witness in the trial against his first cousin Uveer Jaganath who is charged with the 2021 killing of his mother, Jessica whom he allegedly killed in their Clare Hill home.

Ravidutt’s father, Ravi Jaganath, was the State’s first witness and led evidence on Tuesday when the matter last sat.

Ravidutt, his wife, and children as well as his parents live next door to Uveer’s house, they are related to Uveer’s grandfather, Andy, being the younger brother of Ravi.

Ravidutt says that on the day of the murder on 6 May, he had been with his parents in their courtyard and had heard quarrelling coming from next door.

He described to the court what he saw when he followed his parents to the bedroom.

“My parents were screaming and crying. Uncle Andy asked me to phone emergency people; I had to go outside because there was too much noise in the room and I couldn't hear. When I went up to the room Uveer was lying half in the passage and the room with his tummy on the floor and his back facing me. When I was going up the stairway to the bedroom there was a knife there.”

The accused has pleaded not guilty and in his plea said that some hours before the incident he had snorted 3-4 grams of cocaine, smoked cigarettes laced with cocaine, and also smoked some dagga joints.

He is currently out on R20 000 bail which was granted in the High Court on appeal after it had been refused in the lower court.

The trial continues.

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