South African Man Kills Designer for Criticizing Home

[Champ]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African man told a court how he hacked to death his interior designer because she criticized his decor, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.



Jose da Silva, 37, pleaded guilty to murdering 47-year-old Beatrice Harrowyn in 2001 after inviting her to his new house in a classy suburb north of Johannesburg.


"We went through the house and I told her what I wanted. She did not make any nice comments about my place so I went to my garage and fetched an axe," the Star newspaper reported him as saying.


"I killed her because she reminded me of an old school teacher whom I hated very much."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&ncid=583&e=1&u=/nm/20040615/od_nm/crime_safrica_dc

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Could this be a valid defense?

"I killed her because she reminded me of an old school teacher whom I hated very much."

Damn, I have several teachers I could use for this. Maybe this will be that loophole in that "you aren't allowed to shoot the annoying people in your life" thingy.

[Spinzonner]

2. This could be the ugly future of Makeover Reality Shows

Jerry Springer meets the Queer Eyes

[Spinzonner]

3. Now a responsible person would have

killed the teacher instead of scapegoating some poor interior designer

[greenman3610]

4. "While you were out"

could this be the nucleus for a new show on the Discovery Channel?