Drug dealer 'killed friend for killing business': prosecutor

25 November 2015 - 08:55 By Roxanne Henderson

A man on trial for the murder of a rehabilitated drug addict has been accused of killing the man to protect his drug business. This as murder-accused Shannon Diamond testified in his own defence in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.Diamond‚ 32‚ has pleaded not guilty to murdering Declynn Harwood‚ 28‚ in the early hours of the morning on November 5 last year in Crown Gardens‚ south of Johannesburg‚ where both men lived.Diamond testified that he and Harwood knew each other as friends‚ that the pair used to take drugs together and claimed that Harwood was “high” when they argued on the night before he died. He denied killing Harwood.“The deceased came to my house asking me if I could take him to Gold Reef City. After I told him I'm not going to leave‚ he got cross and we [had] an argument‚” he said.Diamond's neighbour Marius Breedt testified earlier that he saw the two arguing outside Diamond's home and heard a gunshot shortly thereafter.Diamond said he left Harwood in the street with his mother‚ Shouneez Diamond‚ who had come out to break up the argument‚ and did not hear a gunshot.Harwood's body was found on the street the Diamonds live on‚ about 70m from their home. He had been shot in his stomach.Prosecutor Talita Louw told Diamond that his version of events and that of Breedt cannot both be true.Said Louw: “Declynn's injury in his stomach was caused by a bullet wound and it was in such a place that he wouldn't have been able to walk far [after being shot at]. How could you or [your mother] not have heard the gunshot?”Diamond said that Breedt testified to hearing a gunshot at about 1:30am‚ but he had seen Harwood hours earlier.Louw told Diamond that he killed Harwood because of a long-standing rivalry between the two men.She said that Diamond‚ an alleged drug dealer‚ was bitter about the fact that Harwood had cleaned up his act and was killing his business by encouraging others in the neighbourhood to stop buying drugs.Diamond admitted that he sold drugs once‚ but said that he had not been selling for some time.Shouneez also testified‚ corroborating Diamond's version of events. Outside court‚ she embraced Harwood's parents‚ in tears.The case was postponed to December 17. – TMG Digital/TMG Courts and Law..

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