WINDHOEK – “I only pushed her once to stop her from stabbing me,” Richard Hange testified last week in his own defence in the trial in which he is accused of beating up and stabbing the mother of his child to death.
State pathologist, Dr Yuri Vasin, previously testified that the deceased, Lisa Kandovazu who was 21 years old at the time of her death was so severely beaten that her brain was swollen and bleeding and she had various abrasions all over her body.
Hange, however, claimed yesterday that he only pushed the deceased away from him when she continued to stab him in the neck in her bedroom at Havana informal settlement.
According to Hange, he arrived at the residence of the deceased at around 13h00 on Tuesday September 27, 2011, and found the deceased and her brother, Emel, at the house.
After he went with the deceased inside her bedroom, she locked the door with a chain and padlock, he said.
Questioned by Judge Christi Liebenberg as to why she locked the door, he said that he thought that because they had not seen each other for a while, she wanted “attention”.
However, “Seun” earlier testified that he could clearly hear his sister telling Hange to leave as she did not want him anymore.
It also became apparent during the trial that the deceased had a child with another man.
Hange, however, claimed that he was fine with the situation, as the deceased apparently told him about it “verbally, but showed him that the pregnancy was his”.
The accused further told the court that after the deceased locked the door, she started to stab him with a knife she had in her right hand and after he pushed her away he tried to get out of the room, but collapsed near the door and only woke up later in hospital.
While four witnesses already testified that Hange was the one who cut his own throat, he remains adamant that it was the deceased who inflicted the cut that stretches from ear to ear.
The State claims that Hange killed his live-in girlfriend, Lisa Kandovazu, on September 27, 2011, at her residence in the informal settlement of Havana in Wanaheda, Windhoek.
It is alleged that Hange hit the deceased with an unknown blunt object(s) on her head, tried to strangle her and/or stabbed her at least twice with a knife.
Kandovazu died on the scene due to blood loss caused by one of the stab wounds while the injuries caused by the blunt force also contributed to the deceased’s demise, it is alleged.
The case continues today and Hange, who is represented by Hipura Ujaha on instructions from Legal Aid, remains in custody. Advocate Jack Eixab represents the State.