On 24 April 2017 it was decided to charge the farm managers with murder. They handed themselves over to police on the 25th, and were charged and requested to hand over the pickup truck involved in the incident. They appeared before a magistrate court on 28 April 2017. Mattheus van Loggerenberg, the magistrate and resident of Coligny who was presiding over the case, noted that it was in the interest of justice that he recused himself from the case, citing that he feared for his life and that of his family. The case was postponed to 9 May 2017 for a formal bail application. Further incidences of violence ensued after the two co-accused were released on bail – a farmhouse was torched, a photographer was attacked and a confrontation erupted between the protesters and farmers. Judge Ronald Hendricks of the High Court in Mahikeng sentenced the two men, Doorewaard and Schutte, to 18 and 23 years respectively, after the testimony of the state witness, Mr Pakisi, was accepted.