Jason Rohde denied bail as probe into wife's death intensifies

Murder accused Jason Rohde – whose wife was found dead at a wine estate – was denied bail by the Stellenbosch Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

The CEO of a Geffen International Realty franchise has assembled a formidable defence team‚ including a private pathologist used by the defence in the Oscar Pistorius case‚ and a former policeman who led the Station Strangler investigation.

Rohde’s team‚ led in court by advocate Pete Mihalik‚ pushed hard to convince the court that Susan Rohde’s death was a suicide. They argued that the state had a weak case‚ maintained that his arrest was unlawful and said that he should be released on bail.

Susan’s body was found in the couple’s bathroom at Spier wine estate‚ where they had attended a function‚ in Stellenbosch on July 24.

Rohde smiled in the dock on Friday‚ the second day of his court appearance‚ as one of his defence team members give him a reassuring pat on the back.

But the mood changed when state prosecutor Carine Theunissen said it was “nonsense” for Mihalik to tell the court that police detectives had embarked on “some kind of party trip” when they went to arrest him in Johannesburg. They had decided to swoop after learning about his off-shore assets‚ suggesting that he could have a motive to leave the country.

“The trigger [for the detectives to make an arrest was] when they were in Johannesburg… they received information about Rohde’s off-shore assets. They discussed [this] with their superiors and decided to make the arrest‚” she said.

She also launched a counter-attack against what she said were assumptions by the defence about what caused the death of Susan.

Bail was denied and the case was adjourned until Tuesday to give the state more time to analyse laptop and cellphone data and DNA evidence.