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The so-called Camps Bay Killer, Diego Novella, is apparently ‘very happy’ that he has been granted leave to appeal his conviction and sentence for the gruesome murder of his American girlfriend, Gabriela Kabrins Alban.

According to his legal team, and papers filed, he believes his sentence was too harsh and that his cognitive ability was impaired by the intake of certain substances.

Novella’s lawyer, William Booth, told the media that Novella’s appeal would be going ahead: “The Heads of Argument will be submitted next. Thereafter, a date set down for the Hearing of the Appeal will be allocated by the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Appeal.

“I have consulted with my client, and he is extremely happy with the outcome, as we felt that the conviction and the sentence were wrong. Hence the reason why we have appealed.”

Through his appeal petition, Novella claims that there were enough mitigating circumstances and that he should have received a sentence of less than 15 years due to his unique circumstances. He pleaded not guilty during the trial.

Novella claims that the influence of hallucinogenic drugs impaired his judgment and put him in an abnormal mental state that prevented him from knowing right from wrong. He says he did not want to kill Alban.

He revealed that he had been seeing Alban for a while since 2013, that she had relocated to live with him in Guatemala in 2014, and that they had travelled to South Africa in 2015 to get treatment for her Lyme condition.

Alban’s body was discovered by hotel staff in Camps Bay in July 2015 and the following media frenzy laid bare the bizarre murder that shocked everyone. Novella has since then been locked up at Brandvlei Prison in Worcester.

He further insists that the State lacked ‘sufficient toxicology data to accurately analyse his intoxication before and after the crime’. He claims that blood was not drawn from him in order to properly assess his level of intoxication.

“I submit that in the regard, the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that both my cognitive and cognitive mental facilities were fully functional at the time of the said offence.”

Alban’s murder shocked the Cape Town community and gruesome details showed that the events that led to her death were as bizarre as they were brutal. At the time, a SAPS detective said the crime scene was one of the ‘strangest’ he had ever seen.

This #WomensMonth we remember 39-year-old Gabriela Kabrins Alban who was murdered in a drug-fuelled frenzy by her boyfriend while on holiday in Cape Town.#DontLookAway #WeRemember

Read more: https://t.co/MEpmulPouS pic.twitter.com/OagdXbXCRt

— IOL News (@IOL) August 29, 2018

During the trial, Novella never expressed remorse and insisted he was also a victim because of how the drugs influenced him.

[source:iol]