Iuze Mukube
Riddick Melchior /Narib, the man convicted for killing his five-year-old stepson, during mitigation proceedings last week narrated events that unfolded on that fateful day.
He cited personal struggles and a relationship breakdown with the boy’s mother as main reasons that pushed him into killing his stepson by hitting him with a brick multiple times.
/Narib, taking the witness stand before Windhoek High Court Judge Naomi Shivute, told his side of the story.
“He saw me as a father,” stated /Narib as he described his relationship with the deceased, Dantali Wilfried.
“During that time, things were not well between his mother and I,” he added.
Responding to questions about the message he apparently sent after killing the young boy, he stated that he only sent two messages to the deceased’s mother, Memory Eises.
One SMS read, “Call quickly,” and the other, “I have taken the life of your son,” he said. He stated that he never sent a message saying that “it was too late.”
/Narib said he did not know why he wanted to inform her of that, only that he wanted to tell her of what had happened and what he had done to her son.
“I don’t know, don’t know why, and don’t know what was going on. I didn’t do it to torment her,” he denied.
He also stated that he could not recall telling Eises that he wanted her to feel that way when he saw her screaming in agony at the police station during that time.
“I cannot remember that I uttered such words to her,” he said on questions about whether he wanted to torment her.
/Narib, however, later told the court that the reason he did what he did is because “I wanted to hurt her [Eises] because of what she did to me. I was heartbroken.”
He stated that the death affected him a lot, and that it was not right for him to take the deceased’s life.
“I raised him and witnessed his first footsteps. I was a father figure to him,” he added.
He tendered an apology to society and parents and also told the court that he was angry with himself for what he did and for taking Wilfred life.
He added that he could have done better in resolving the matter in a mature way.
In a chilling account of trust gone wrong, the accused stated that, on that day, he was walking around selling tools and saw the deceased with other children as he passed by the tuck shop.
“Yes, he trusted me and called me ‘papa’, and the two of us left together from the tuck shop,” he responded to the State’s question on why Wilfred followed him.
He stated that he went with the deceased to the dunes, on the outskirts of Walvis Bay, but on the way, he did not know what entered his thoughts.
On questions of what the mom did, /Narib stated that she was allegedly cheating on him, and that he saw her talking to the third party outside the house, while he was with the children.
The State, represented by Antonia Verhoef, dismissed that version saying the accused never instructed his lawyer to put it to Eises during cross-examination.
On the injuries inflicted on the deceased, he said he only hit him twice, and he then fell.
He later covered the body with sand, and he never buried him.
/Narib was convicted last week for killing his stepson by hitting him repeatedly in the head with a brick and cutting him with a knife.
Wilfried was the son of his domestic partner, Eiseb, whom he had been married to since 2020.
He faces the charges of murder and defeating or obstructing the course of justice in relation to the matter.
The matter was postponed to 19 February 2026 for sentencing.