Windhoek
A very different looking Pieter Farmer wants the Windhoek High Court to allow him to appeal an effective 35-year prison term imposed by Judge Nate Ndauendapo in May 2013.
The appeal application was postponed to April 18 by Judge Christi Liebenberg on behalf of Judge Ndauendapo, who was not available yesterday.
Farmer, who seems to have filled out and is sporting a Mohawk hairstyle with a rosemary necklace around his neck, was convicted by Judge Ndauendapo on April 9, 2013 for the murder of 18-year-old Dolleveria McKay and the unlawful possession of the murder weapon and ammunition.
McKay was his ex-girlfriend and mother of his daughter, now aged 18. He was given a 35-year sentence for the murder of McKay and one year for the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition. Both sentences were ordered to run concurrently.
At the time of the sentence Judge Ndauendapo remarked that the behaviour of men who resort to killing their girlfriends or wives when the relationship has ended is totally unacceptable and “must be condemned in the strongest possible terms”.
He added that “society is craving for severe sentences against men who kill women.”
Farmer was found guilty of the brutal and intentional murder of his then seven-month-old baby girl’s mother, with a shot through the heart with a 7.65 mm calibre pistol in the early morning hours of November 12, 2005 at the Krönlein residential area of Keetmanshoop.
Judge Ndauendapo was adamant that Farmer at no stage during the trial showed genuine remorse for his actions.
“The first thing in showing genuine remorse is to acknowledge the wrongfulness of one’s conduct and then to demonstrate remorsefulness,” Judge Ndauendapo reiterated. He went on to say that it is easy to do that if one is genuinely sorry for one’s conduct.
Judge Ndauendapo said it was clear from the evidence before court that Farmer was heartbroken, because the deceased had ended the relationship and was seeing someone else. “That’s why he shot her,” the judge found.
He went on to say that while Farmer did confess remorse in his plea examination, at the time he shot the deceased he did not express any remorse, nor shortly after that.
In fact, Judge Ndauendapo remarked, according to the mother of the deceased, he had not expressed any remorse for the killing of her daughter. He also never testified in court, where he could have expressed remorse, according to the judge.
“His conduct after shooting the deceased was uncaring and emotionless,” Judge Ndauendapo stressed.
What was aggravating, in Judge Ndauendapo’s view, was the fact that more than seven years after the deceased was murdered Farmer has not shown any sign of remorse.