Iuze Mukube
A 25-year-old resident of Gobabis was on Monday found guilty on seven charges after causing the death of a female passenger when he rammed his vehicle into a stationary car in 2023.
Denzil Xavier Dawids faced eight charges, including murder, reckless or negligent driving, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, common assault and malicious damage to property.
He was convicted in the Windhoek High Court by Acting Judge Makapa Simasiku.
The judge found that Dawids’ version of being attacked with stones while driving, resulting in him losing control of his vehicle, to be highly improbable and unbelievable.
His version was that, after arriving at a club on 1 October 2023, he was later attacked after getting off from his vehicle by a group of people and robbed of his wallet and a phone.
Afterwards, he followed the group to recover his belongings.
Dawids said he found their car, a BMW, parked in front of a residence but lost control and accidentally accelerated after stones were thrown.
This resulted in him crashing his car into the BMW, leaving one dead and multiple injured.
Judge Simasiku ruled that this version does not explain how stones that were thrown by people standing in front of his oncoming vehicle missed the windscreen, curved in and hit the rear window.
“His defence is found improbable and beyond reasonable doubt false. Thus, it stands to be rejected,” he said.
He added that the defence of the accused of being suddenly attacked and losing control, as well as the denials in assaulting the complainants are rejected as false beyond a reasonable doubt.
Simasiku found that the collision was not accidental but a deliberate act by the accused.
“The accused’s prior threat to follow the group, his acceleration towards the vehicle and his statement after the fact, that, ‘I do not care whom I bumped’ signifies an intention which is inconsistent with an accidental collision,” he stated.
He said Dawids’ intentional act of driving into the vehicle suggests an intention to harm those standing around or seated in the BMW, suggesting an attempt to murder.
Dawids is convicted of murder with dolus eventualis, formed from his utterances after hitting the deceased, Yolande McCullum, that he did not care whom he bumped.
The judge added that the utterances of the accused directly proved that he “foresaw a fatal outcome and acted with a conscious and reckless disregard for human life. It confirms his intent was not limited to harming a specific person but extended to anyone in the vehicle’s path or within its vicinity”.
Dawids was also found guilty on the two counts of attempted murder for driving his car directly towards Percival McCullum, the deceased’s son, and Caden Snyders, a complainant.
Simasiku, however, convicted Dawids on a lesser count of assault – from assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm to common assault.
Dawids was further convicted for common assault for slapping Snyders in the face with an open hand and for the count of malicious damage of property as evidenced from the damage found on the BMW from the collision.
The accused was acquitted on the count of reckless and negligent driving, as it would amount to a duplication of charges.
The matter was postponed to 30 September 2025 for pre-sentencing proceedings.