Witness in drug-linked murder trial heard argument and gunshot

A loud argument, a shot fired, and a man doubled over clutching his stomach.

This is what a witness heard and saw on the morning a rehabilitated drug user and father of three was murdered.

The Johannesburg Magistrate's Court heard this on Friday when the trial of the man accused of killing Declynn Harwood, 28, began.

Marius Breedt testified that in November last year, at about 1:30 am, he was woken up by a loud argument outside the house he was renting at the time.

He looked out of his bedroom window and saw a man swinging his arms around and having an “aggressive” argument with the deceased, Harwood, Breedt said.

Breedt identified the man sitting in the dock as the person who was standing in the yard outside the house adjacent to his in Crown Gardens in the south of Johannesburg. The man's identity is being withheld to protect children close to the matter.

Breedt said Harwood had been standing in the street in front of the gate during the argument.

Breedt described the argument as “serious” and said he walked to the sitting room to hear and see better.

As he was walking, he heard a gunshot but he could not see anything because he was not near a window at the time.

He said he knew it was a gunshot because he had 12 years of military training and has a lot of experience with firearms.

When Breedt opened the sliding door in the sitting room, he said he heard the accused threaten Harwood, saying: “I will f*** you up, I will get you.”

“The person outside the gate [Harwood] grabbed the left side of his stomach, bent forward, turned right and started to walk away,” said Breedt.

He saw the man walk for about 10m before he disappeared behind a wall, and he saw an object “the size of a half brick” in the hand of the accused before he turned around and walked into his house.

Breedt said it was too dark for him to identify the object but he thought it was a gun. He said he then went back to his bedroom, told his wife what happened and went to sleep.

Later that morning while he was standing in his yard, he said the police approached him for a statement and he identified the man he saw lying dead in the street as the man he saw walking away from the accused's house.

“It happened many times before and at that moment I didn't think of it,” he said when prosecutor Talita Louw asked him why he didn't call the police.

Breedt said he recognised Harwood by the three-quarter pants he was wearing and a dark shirt. He also said he knew the accused by sight and knew that he lived in the house adjacent to him with two women.

The trial continues.