Windhoek
The 66-year-old Eliakin Nampundi was recently convicted of double murder with direct intent in the Windhoek High Court by Judge Alfred Siboleka.
Siboleka also convicted Nampindi of attempted murder.
In relation to the first charge he killed Paul Fredericks, 46, at Hoachanas in the Mariental District on March 5, 2009.
It is further alleged that while out on bail for the first murder and on a warrant of arrest after he failed to return to court, he killed his life partner Anetta Jantjies during the period of August 3 to 4, 2011 at Kalkrand.
He was also charged for attempting to kill Salmon Rooinasie by stabbing him with a knife or sharp object in his back on the same night.
According to the judge, substantial force was used during the infliction of all the injuries. He said the first victim was stabbed viciously with a knife used to slaughter donkeys and cattle. “The girlfriend was brutally stabbed multiple times, her stomach slit open, the intestines came out,” the judge said and continued: “The accused left her unattended despite the clinic being only 800 metres away. He further remarked the third victim was viciously stabbed in the back and only just managed to dodge a second blow and ran away.”
Nampindi pleaded not guilty to all three counts at the start of his trial and did not furnish a plea explanation, but during his trial it emerged that he depended on self-defence.
However, Judge Siboleka said his various versions were totally void of any truth.
In fact, the judge said, his claim that Rooinasie hit him with a brick on the forehead after he found Rooinasie and the deceased in the second murder charge in a compromising position, is very untruthful.
According to the judge, the arresting officer and the doctor who examined Nampindi described the wound on his forehead as “an old superficial bruise on the scalp”, which conclusively shows untruthfulness on the part of the accused.
He further said that it is very unlikely that Rooinasie who was faced with such a “dangerous emergency” of being caught in the act could have jumped up and still managed to lift up one of the beds to remove a brick and still hit the accused on the head.
The judge said all of the evidence of the state witnesses corroborated each other and confidently refuted the untruths the accused dished up for the court.
He said the evidence of the accused is false beyond a reasonable doubt because from the medical evidence of the location of the numerous fatal stab wounds on the two deceased victims they appear to have been inflicted directly in a face to face attack. This, he said, is also in accord with the depth and extent of devastation of the stab wounds.
Medical evidence corroborates the evidence of the minor eyewitnesses, the judge emphasised.
While the evidence of the two minor eyewitnesses to the attacks was single-witness evidence, which must be approached with caution, their evidence was in accordance with the medical evidence. “Therefore, they are reliable, satisfactory and credible witnesses,” noted the judge.
He said they remained consistent with what they saw during the incidents, and were unshaken in both their evidence in chief and cross-examination.
In the end, the judge said, he was satisfied the State proved beyond reasonable doubt the accused acted with intent to bring about the deaths of Fredericks and Jantjies and attempted to murder Rooinasie.
The case will return to court on July 12 for sentencing.
State Advocate Ethel Ndlovu prosecuted and Mbanga Siyomunji appeared on behalf of Nampindi, instructed by legal aid.