Windhoek
The long-running trial in which two Omamas residents face charges of murder and defeating or obstructing (or attempting to defeat) the course of justice was again postponed to January next year.
The postponement was for legal counsels to prepare their submissions in a trial-within-a trial that started shortly after 39-year old Raynoldt (Jacky) Windstaan and 40-year old Johannes Eichab pleaded not guilty to the charges in November 2012.
Windstaan and Eichab face two counts of murder and one count of defeating, or obstructing, the course of justice or attempting to do so. It is alleged they murdered 42-year old Klaas Titus and 39-year-old John McNab during the period of July 16 to 18, 2005, in the Mariental District and threw the deceased’s bodies into a deep and isolated well on Farm Good Hope, from which it is impossible to escape without assistance.
The two men’s skeletal remains were discovered in the well after Windstaan allegedly pointed the well out to the police, because he could no longer handle the nightmares in which his alleged victims haunted him.
After evidence was led in the trial, including testimonies of alleged eye-witnesses to the murder, the State wanted to introduce a warning statement, pointing out an alleged confession Eichab had made shortly after his arrest.
Eichab, through his court appointed lawyer, Winnie Christiaans, disputes the authenticity of the alleged admissions.
He claims the police dictated to him what to say in the confession to the magistrate and authored the warning statement themselves before forcing him to sign it.
He also claims the alleged pointing out was also done by the police, who told him what and where to point. The State, represented by Advocate Erich Moyo, contends the admissions were made freely and voluntarily.
After Moyo finished with his cross-examination of Eichab, Judge Naomi Shivute postponed the matter to January 27 next year for the lawyers to submit arguments on the admissibility of the admissions by Eichab.