S. African Gets 12 Years for Killing Track Star’s Dad

A man with at least seven previous theft and fraud convictions was sentenced today to 12 years in prison for the shotgun murder of Frank Budd, father of distance runner Zola Budd.

Christiaan Barnard, 24, who could have been sentenced to hang, was described by Supreme Court Justice A. P. von Coller as a dishonest witness. However, the judge said there was a reasonable possibility that Barnard had been provoked into the killing because Budd made sexual advances toward him.

Barnard also was convicted of stealing a pickup truck from Budd’s farm.

Budd, 59 at the time of his death in September, was a homosexual, according to associates and family members.

Zola Budd said after his death that his homosexuality was a factor in her parents’ separation in 1984 and subsequent divorce. She had very little contact with him after the divorce and did not invite him to her wedding last year.