The Katutura Magistrate’s Court gave a final remand for the police to finalise investigations into the case of a 42-year-old man who is accused of killing his live-in girlfriend and mother of his children nearly three years ago in Windhoek’s Otjomuise.
According to state prosecutor Latoya Mukumbo, additional instructions from the prosecutor general are yet to be completed. Furthermore, DNA results are still outstanding in the case of Erastus Heita. “They (police) received information from the lab that it is now operational, and the results will finally be available on the next remand,” said Mukumbo.
Thus, magistrate Niinja Hochobes postponed the matter finally for further police investigations to 29 July, extending Heita’s N$10 000 bail. Heita was arrested in October 2017 after handing himself over to the police after he allegedly shot his live-in girlfriend and mother to his two children 29-year-old Maria Megameno Kamati.
During his formal bail hearing, Heita informed the court that Kamati’s death was accidental. Heita claimed he accidentally shot Kamati in the process of attempting to shoot at an intruder who emerged from their bedroom wardrobe that early morning on 1 October 2017 at their Otjomuise apartment.
During the hearing, Heita took a no guilty plea. However, the investigating officer during her testimony stated that Kamati was not accidentally shot as Heita has claimed in his testimony.
According to her testimony, Kamati was shot while in her sleep and the relationship between Kamati and Heita was violent and abusive. The prosecution is now charging Heita with a count of murder read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act of 2003 for the fatal shooting.
-mamakali@nepc.com.na