Windhoek High Court Judge Dinnah Usiku on Wednesday sentenced a man who killed his girlfriend over rumours that she was unfaithful by beating her several times with a 14kg stone, to an effective 41 years in jail.

She convicted Jeremias Nowaseb (40) of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, rape, assault and defeating the course of justice in October.

The quadragenarian was convicted of murdering his 20-year-old girlfriend and mother of his infant child, Christina Kooper, with 18 blows to the head with a stone, crushing her skull at Aranos near Mariental on 31 October 2020.

The deceased died on the scene due to blunt force injuries to the brain. He pleaded not guilty to the charges at the start of his trial, and said that he acted in self-defence when he hit the deceased with the stone after she attacked him with it first. 

The doctor who conducted the post-mortem concluded that she was hit at least 18 times.

Judge Usiku said it is no secret that society has been horrified by the wave of murder cases which are reported daily in the media, in which mostly women engaged in romantic relationships are killed by their so-called lovers. 

In this instance, the judge said, the deceased was first assaulted and then taken to an isolated area where she was stoned to death with a heavy stone, which smashed her head.

“She suffered a horrific death,” the judge stressed. The deceased was then left in the mountains, and her body was only discovered by the police a few days later.

To make matters worse, Usiku said, Nowaseb made a false missing person’s report at the police, knowing full well that he had murdered her. This, she said, shows that the accused has no respect for law and order at all. 

The judge continued that the outrage and condemnation from society over the killing of the deceased deserves recognition. However, she said the court must guard against satisfying public expectations, but should also not close its eyes to public interest in circumstances where deterrence and retribution are called for. 

“The accused first assaulted the deceased, whereafter he lured her to faraway bushes, where he finally killed and left her there,” the judge said, adding that the act poses a certain threat to the community and calls for his removal.

She further said it is evident that the accused acted with direct intent to bring about the deceased’s demise. 

His persistence in taking the deceased to the bushes after he had assaulted her, and forcefully having sexual intercourse with her in order to ascertain if the deceased’s infidelity was true or not, is evident that he did not want anyone to come to her assistance. 

This, the judge emphasised, is shocking behaviour to any reasonable person.

In the end, she sentenced him to 26 years on the murder charge, 15 years on the rape charge, one year on the assault charge, and two years on the defeating the ends of justice charge. She, however, ordered that the sentences on the assault and defeating charges run concurrently with the sentence on the murder count.

Nowaseb was represented by Legal Aid lawyer Eliaser Shikwa, and the State by Advocate Ethel Ndlovu.

-rrouth@nepc.com.na