A 36-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2022 murder of Nelspruit deputy sheriff Michelle Jones and the attempted murder of her partner Julio Cohen.

The Mbombela High Court found Hendry Dlamini guilty after a dispute over the ownership of a house that Jones had recently purchased. Dlamini had been occupying the property, which previously belonged to his mother.

According to prosecutors, on October 19, 2022, Jones and Cohen went to change the locks on the house, prompting Dlamini to issue threats that it was his home and no one else would live there. The couple obtained a protection order against him.

The next day, Dlamini spotted Jones and Cohen parked near a shop in Nashville. He approached their vehicle and opened fire, critically injuring Cohen and fatally shooting 31-year-old Jones multiple times in the neck, chest, and abdomen.

During the trial, prosecutors presented witness testimony, photographic evidence, and ballistic reports linking Dlamini to the crimes. A post-mortem confirmed Jones’s cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds.

Though Dlamini pleaded not guilty and conducted his own defence, Judge Roelofse stated the evidence proved his intent to kill and remarked on the seriousness of murdering a defenceless woman. The judge noted Dlamini showed no remorse for his actions.

Prosecutor Adv. Thulani Msibi had argued that Dlamini’s crimes warranted the prescribed life sentence for premeditated murder. Dlamini handed himself over to police five days after the fatal shooting.