WINDHOEK – There is a saying that no good deed goes unpunished. This adage could ring true for one of the defence counsels in the ongoing H.A.M.S Security Services murder and robbery trial.
After state witness Lincoln Scholtz refused to testify last week and Judge Naomi Shivute was about to jail him for being a recalcitrant witness, lawyer Monty Karuaihe intervened on his behalf.
Karuaihe requested the judge to give Scholtz more time to consider his decision. This kind deed may now well return to cost him as Scholtz has now positively identified his client, 39- year-old Toivo Kashipolo as the person who shot and killed Andries Petrus de Jager. He also told the court he was positive it was Kashipolo who robbed the deceased of a briefcase containing N$172 488.10 and fired at a woman in a red car. The woman, Hannelie Roostee, earlier testified she was driving down Iscor Road in Northern Industria when she noticed a man running across the road, with another one with a briefcase following him at speed. After she followed them for a distance in her car one of the men jumped into a light coloured BMW and the second one turned and pointed a firearm at her to fire a shot.
“At that moment my only inclination was to get away from that firearm and I instantly ducked down behind my dashboard,” she told the court. “It was the angels who protected me,” she said of the shot that went through her car’s windscreen.
Scholtz yesterday testified he was in his office reading a newspaper when he at first heard a sound that sounded like a firecracker. He then heard a second gunshot and he immediately grabbed his service pistol out of his desk drawer and went outside where he saw the deceased and one of the complainants, Martha Diergaardt, struggling to get a firearm out of the holster.
“I could see that De Jager was wounded as I could see blood on his shirt,” he told the court. He then gave De Jager his pistol and took the one they were struggling with and gave chase after the robber who was running away in a westerly direction, Scholtz narrated.
When he next saw Kashipolo, according to Scholtz, he was firing at a red vehicle at point blank range. He aimed right at the driver Roostee and when the shot went off he saw her go down and he thought the accused had killed her.
“I just thank God that he missed her.”
He then gave chase after Kashipolo firing some shots until the latter just sat down in front of the NBC premises in a patch of grass and Special Field Force members arrived and handcuffed Kashipolo, Scholtz told Judge Shivute.
On a question from State Advocate Ethel Ndlovu whether he could clearly see the fleeing Kashipolo, Scholtz said: “I had my eye on him at all times.” He said Kashipolo also had the briefcase in his hands when he was running away.
“It was a brown briefcase that belonged to De Jager that he always used to withdraw the salaries of the guards,” he said.
According to him though, during the chase Kashipolo threw the briefcase into some bushes.
At the start of his testimony Scholtz identified Kashipolo as the man he saw earlier that morning standing under a tree at the premises of H.A.M.S Security and when he saw him again where he had collapsed he recognised him.
Kashipolo and Willem Valombola, 45, and Fillipus Shishiveni Nomongula, 40, face one count murder, one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances, two counts of attempted murder, one count of possessing a firearm without a licence and one count of possessing ammunition without a licence.
They already pleaded not guilty to all charges they face at their first appearance.
The State alleges all the accused acted with a common purpose at all relevant times.
The case continues today and Valombola is out on bail of N3 000 while his co-accused are in custody.
By Roland Routh