The former bodyguard of slain “Steroid King” Brian Wainstein has openly admitted to telling liegstories to alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield after planning the murder of his own boss.
The shocking revelation was made as the bodyguard, who has fingered Jerome “Donkie“ Booysen and Mark Lifman as being behind the murder plot, testified in the Western Cape High Court about how he tried to cover his own tracks.
Wainstein was gunned down in his larney Constantia home in August 2017 as he lay sleeping next to his wife and child. At the time of his murder he was on Interpol’s most wanted list after he fled the USA.
In the mammoth underworld trial, the state has brought Wainstein’s former bodyguard to take the stand and outline his links to the 27s gang, as well as Booysen and Lifman.
The bodyguard, who may not be named, said he betrayed Wainstein in a bid to take over the illegal steroid trade but has admitted that the business flopped under his supervision.
The bodyguard along with his brother and Kishor “Kamal” Naidoo allegedly set up a plan to murder Wainstein and allowed hitmen onto the deceased’s property.
This week, he revealed that Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson were close friends of Wainstein.
A recording of a cellphone call was played in court where Stanfield is heard questioning the bodyguard extensively on the details surrounding Wainstein’s murder and even insinuates that Wainstein’s wife could be behind the hit, saying the couple had been “fighting like cats and dogs”.
Stanfield also asks about the number of shots fired, whether the perimeter fence was intact, and questions how a gunman could have accessed Wainstein, and why a kitchen door was left unlocked.
The bodyguard told the court that he was afraid of Stanfield, and that he lied to Stanfield fearing that his own role in the murder would be revealed.
He testified: “Mr Stanfield is a very scary man. I suspected he knew I was part of it.”
Asked why he lied to Stanfield to implicate Wainstein’s wife in the murder, the bodyguard said: “I was trying to give him a bone so he wouldn't look to me. It was to distract and deceive [him]. I had a sense that he knew.”
According to the State’s case, at the time of the murder, Lifman was having a fight with Wainstein over property and investments.
A month before Wainstein was killed there was a failed hit on Stanfield and the state alleges that Wainstein believed Lifman was behind this botched hit and had planned to murder one of his bodyguards in retaliation.
The indictment also states that a plot to murder Wainstein was later hatched between Lifman and the 27s gang.
The document reads: “Accused 1 [Lifman] indicated that he was not willing to pay more than R250 000 as he had paid R500 000 for the hit on Stanfield and the hit was unsuccessful.”