Man gets life for murder that stunned South Africa

Reuters:

A 25-year-old South African was sentenced to life in jail on Thursday for the murder of a student that shocked even crime-weary South Africans.

Johannesburg's High Court sentenced Donovan Moodley for life for murdering Leigh Matthews, with an additional 15 years for her kidnapping to be served concurrently with 10 years for extorting 50,000 rand ($7,730) from her family before he shot her dead, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported.

Life sentences in South Africa normally last 25 years, meaning Moodley could stay in jail until he is 65.

The case of Matthews, whose father is a successful Johannesburg businessman, captured the imagination of a public largely inured to violence by newspapers that chronicle the daily toll of beatings, rapes and murders.

Moodley pleaded guilty to all three charges on July 25, but state lawyers argued in pre-sentencing hearings that his confession failed to explain expert witnesses' testimony that Matthews' body appeared to have been frozen after her death.

"It is clear that the deceased was not killed where she was found. It is clear he is untruthful and was not candid with the court," Judge Joop Labuschagne said in his pronouncement.

Matthews, 21, was found shot to death in open ground south of Johannesburg nearly two weeks after disappearing from her university campus in July 2004, even though her father had paid a ransom for her return.

"The crimes were callous, heinous and beyond comprehension ... He has ruined his own life and has devastated the lives of his own family and that of the Matthews family," Labuschagne said.

The photogenic blonde Matthews appeared on newspaper front pages day after day as a shocked public followed the search first for the student herself and then for her killer.

A website www.findleighmatthews.co.za, set up for well wishers to post messages of hope to the family, became an online book of condolences and now invites donations to a memorial trust fund to help the police fight violent crime.

Much crime goes unnoticed media in South Africa's poor and lawless black townships, but the most grisly cases of child rape or murder routinely spark calls for the return of the death penalty, abolished since the end of apartheid rule 10 years ago.

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