Picture: for illustration purposes
In a recent development, Diego Novella, the Guatemalan man sentenced to a two-decade-long imprisonment for ruthlessly murdering his US girlfriend in a Cape Town hotel, has been granted leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
In 2018, the high court of Cape Town handed down the twenty-year sentence to Novella for the brutal 2015 homicide of Gabriela Kabrins Alban, a business executive hailing from New York. Alban was in the city visiting Novella, who possesses both Guatemalan and Italian citizenship.
Hotel staff discovered Alban's body in a room of the upmarket Camps Bay Retreat Hotel, shared with Novella. The horrific scene revealed defilement of the deceased using faeces and chips on her face, and a note reading "cerote" – Spanish slang for "piece of s**t". Furthermore, investigators found a curling iron besmeared with evidence of sexual abuse next to her remains.
William Booth, Novella's defence lawyer, confirmed that the Supreme Court of Appeal had granted his client permission to appeal his conviction and sentence. Currently incarcerated at Brandvlei prison in Worcester, Novella claimed in his appeal request that another court could infer differently on the murder charge and his perceived severe sentence.
Citing substance abuse as the paradoxical scapegoat of his actions, Novella stated, "This appeal deals with the issue of my criminal capacity at the time I allegedly caused the death of the deceased." Contesting the murder charges and appealing for leniency, Novella contends that illicit substances he consumed hampered his ability to distinguish right from wrong.
Novella pleads that there are significant circumstances that warrant a departure from the 15-year minimum sentence. He vehemently denies intending to kill Alban and attributes his abnormal mental state at the time to substance abuse involving cannabis, dronabinol, and sceletium, which lead to abnormal behaviour.
Post-arrest, Novella was observed at Valkenberg mental hospital, where the panel found his responsibility "diminished" at the incident time. With an intimate relationship with Alban since 2013, Novella's appeal underscores a complex case transcending international law, substance abuse, and mental health issues.