Murder: Girl 24 who killed all family members to claim Insurance benefits bag 25-years imprisonment

 

 

A 24-year old woman who killed all her family members including her parents, pregnant sister and brother in a bid to claim Insurance benefits has received a 25-years jail term.

Onthatile Sebati in connivance with her cousins, Tumelo and Kagiso Mokone, killed her parents in 2016 over her desire to claim her parents insurance benefits.

The court however sentenced her cousins who were 18-years when the crime was committed, to life imprisonment. They were hired by Onthatile to kill the victims.

Judge Mashudu Munzhelele of the Pretoria High Court described Onthatile action as a betrayal of trust which her family members had in her.

Onthatile’s father, Solomon Lucky Sebati, was a police constable while her mother Mmatshepo was a nurse.

She was 16-year old at the time she committed the crime. Her sister, Tshegofatso who was 19-year-old and pregnant at the time of the incident as well as her three-year-old brother Quinton, were shot in their home in Mmakau, North West.

“The murder of four individuals, including parents and children, is a heinous act of violence, and the fact that accused number two (Onthatile), a family member, was an accomplice in the killing of her family intensifies the emotional devastation and the seriousness of the crime,” the judge said while delivering judgment.

According to the prosecutors, Onthatile masterminded the murder by ensuring her cousins has access to her family ‘s house including the father’s gun which they used in killing all the family members.

While Kagiso shot the deceased, Tumelo waited in the getaway vehicle. After the murder, Onthatile paid them R100,000 from insurance payouts.

Five years after the incident, Onthatile reported herself to relatives and confessed she killed her family members and mentioned her two cousins as accomplices.

They were handed to the police charged with theft, four counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and possession of a firearm and ammunition, and were found guilty earlier this year. They were declared unfit to own firearms.

Prosecutors told the court that relatives are yet to come to terms with the action of the convicts as it has caused emotional damage to the family.

Onthatile’s aunt, Japhitaline Sebati, hailed the judgment describing it as “justice served,”

“It is painful to see such an intelligent child waste her future, but I hope she gets rehabilitated,” she said.