WARNING: The details of this story might upset sensitive readers
A Diazville man, Wesley Snyders, will spend 25 years behind bars after he was convicted and sentenced for the January 2024 murder of a 27-year-old local Netball coach.
Elrico Byl left his home on Oester Street in Diazville on Sunday, 14 January, and never returned. His concerned family registered a missing persons enquiry the following day at the Saldanha Police Station.
On Wednesday, 17 January, police discovered Byl’s body, hidden between rocks at Takabaai Beach.
The Investigating Officer, Detective Sergeant Siyabonga Bara, launched an intense investigation, which led him directly to Snyders the following day. Snyders was 18 years old at the time.
Snyders appeared in the Vredenburg Magistrates’ court and pleaded guilty to the charge of murder.
In a plea and sentence agreement finalised by the State, Snyders confessed that he intentionally killed Byl by stabbing him all over his body and assaulting him with a rock.
He killed the deceased while committing a robbery with aggravating circumstances. He threatened Byl to hand over his cellphone, and when he resisted, he stabbed him with a knife he had. He then took a rock that was close by and beat him with it. Snyders took his cellphone and ran away.
Snyders has claimed that he and the deceased agreed to have sex at the beach in Saldanha, and that he decided to rob and kill Byl afterwards.
He was under the influence of drugs at the time, but in his plea agreement, he stated he was still able to differentiate between right and wrong.
In mitigation of sentence, the defence argued that substantial and compelling circumstances which justify a sentence other than the prescribed sentence existed.
They argued that the accused was 18 years old at the time of the offence and thus his youthfulness should be considered, and that he had pleaded guilty and shown remorse.
On Tuesday, 24 June, Snyders was sentenced to 25 years’ direct imprisonment at the Vredenburg Magistrates’ court.
The Western Cape Provincial Commissioner Thembisile Patekile and the National Prosecuting Authority have welcomed the sentencing.
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