The Katutura Magistrate’s Court has set down the case of a 42-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend and mother of his children nearly two years ago in Windhoek’s Otjomuise suburb.
Appearing in absentia, murder accused Erastus Heita was informed that the court would postpone his case to 29 May for the prosecutor general’s decision.
Magistrate Atutala Shikalepo further explained that there is a directive to postpone all cases due to the Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
Heita is currently being charged with a count of murder read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act of 2003.
The charge emanates from the death of his live-in girlfriend and mother to his two children Maria Megameno Kamati (29). Kamati was found in the couple’s shared apartment in Otjomuise with a bullet to the head.
Heita, who is currently on N$10 000 bail, was arrested in October 2017 after handing himself over to the police for the fatal shooting.
During his formal bail hearing, Heita informed the court that Kamati’s death was ‘accidental’.
In his defence, he says he accidentally shot her in the process of attempting to shoot an intruder who emerged from their bedroom wardrobe early that morning on 1 October 2017.
Police state that Heita used his personal 9mm Makarov pistol to shoot her.
He denied guilt when he took a no guilty plea to the murder charge.
However, the investigating officer, during her testimony, stated that Kamati was not accidentally shot, and was shot in her sleep. The police never found the alleged intruder, as alluded to by Heita in his defence.
The investigating officer further informed the court that according to statements he obtained the relationship between Kamati and Heita was violent and abusive.
– mamakali@nepc.com.na