Judgment is expected to be handed down in the Lerusha Govender murder trial at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Anthony Strauss admitted strangling Govender in a fit of rage on December 30 after the pair had a disagreement.
Strauss had been hired by Govender in December last year to build kitchen cupboards at her house in Paulshof, Johannesburg.
He told the court he had tied an electrical cord around Govender’s neck and chocked her to death, stating he had never meant to kill her.
Drug addict
On September 4, under cross-examination by prosecutor Nerisha Naidoo, Strauss admitted to being a drug addict and told the court he had used drugs on several occasions on the day he killed Govender.
Strauss’s cellphone records were brought in as part of the evidence, and it was revealed that he had spent the day making phone calls to his Nigerian drug dealers as well as to his girlfriend Lilla Shaw.
Shaw had introduced Govender to Strauss and recommended him for the job.
It was understood that Strauss had strangled and killed Govender and then covered her with a duvet.
He spent several hours at her home after killing her and left in her sports car the next morning.
Govender’s body was later discovered at her home by her brother.
Source: News24
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