Boss who tried to kill business partner has sentence trimmed
A former security company manager in Cape Town who plotted to kill his business partner has succeeded in getting his jail term cut, notes a TimesLIVE report. Grant Smith was sentenced in March 2015 to an effective seven years for conspiracy to murder Alan Kusevitsky‚ owner of City Bowl Armed Response‚ in 2008.
But yesterday the Western Cape High Court lopped three years off his jail term‚ which was handed down at the Cape Regional Court after a seven-year trial. Judge Owen Rogers said Smith’s ‘clean record‚ his personal circumstances and the lengthy delay in the completion of the trial’ had influenced his decision.
Smith plotted to kill Kusevitsky by getting his then-mistress‚ Joanne Neethling‚ who was the company’s paramedic head‚ to hire a hitman. Neethling turned state witness‚ made a plea bargain and gave evidence against Smith‚ and Rogers was critical of the two-year suspended sentence she was given‚ describing it as ‘inappropriately lenient’.
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