WINDHOEK – A resident of Rosh Pinah in the southern part of Namibia pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of murder, but not guilty to a count of attempted murder.
After the charges against him were read out by State Prosecutor Simba Nduna in the Windhoek High Court, Petrus Friedel Kobus Frederick answered through an interpreter.
“Guilty as charged My Lord,” he answered when Judge Alfred Siboleka asked him how he pleaded to the charge of murder. However, when the judge enquired about his plea on the second charge, he said “guilty of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm,” causing the judge to enquire from the prosecutor Nduna whether he accepted the plea.
Nduna told Judge Siboleka the State accepts the guilty plea on murder, but not the guilty plea of assault with the intent to cause GBH as it intends to prove Frederick intended to kill the complainant, Rachid Chanick Klukowski.
The State alleges Frederick attempted to kill Klukowski on 3 December, 2011 by breaking his collarbone and his right humeral head – the area where the arm is joined with the shoulder – by hitting, kicking and beating him all over his body. In contradiction to what the State alleges, Frederick in a plea explanation read out to the court by his state-funded lawyer, Mese Tjituri, says he only hit Klukowski once on the jaw with a clenched fist after which Klukowski who was 20 years old at the time fell to the ground and did not get up again.
He said he did that after he went to the flat of the complainant at Scorpion Village in Rosh Pinah to enquire about the whereabouts of his daughter, Gwennith Stoffel, and that Klukowski who appeared intoxicated rushed at him saying “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
According to Frederick he feared an attack and launched a defence.
The guilty plea he entered relates to Bonaventura Skeyer, who died as a result of at least 27 stab wounds inflicted by him all over her body at Rosh Pinah on 26 February, 2012.
In his plea explanation, Frederick told the court he was in a romantic relationship with the deceased for at least five years before the incident.
He said the murder stemmed from his suspicions that the deceased was cheating on him.
According to him, while he do not normally go to the residence of the deceased when he had been drinking to avoid confrontation, on the day in question he went there in the early morning hours and did not find her at home.
He then waited at the entrance until the daughter of the deceased opened the door for him and he went to sleep until the deceased arrived at around noon.
A quarrel erupted between them when he asked where she had been and he then grabbed at least two kitchen knives and proceeded to stab the deceased all over her body.
According to Frederick, he knew that his actions would result in the death of the deceased and that he intended to kill her. He asked the court for mercy and said that through his plea he wished to take responsibility for his actions and to tender a heartfelt apology to all affected.