Iuze Mukube
State advocate Emma Mayavero has urged the court to find a Mariental resident guilty for fatally stabbing another with a knife.
The closing submissions were heard in the Windhoek High Court on Friday.
The accused, Adam Isaack (29), faces two counts, including murder and attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances.
The trial arises from an incident on 8 June 2019, where it is alleged the accused stabbed Eldin Sylwester Fransman in the neck with a knife.
It was further alleged that the stabbing was a result of an attempt to rob the deceased and his friends of a five-litre container of wine near Gibeon in the district of Mariental.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges in February.
Mayavero submitted that by stabbing the deceased with a knife in the neck and causing injury to the large vessels, Isaack acted with direct intent to kill the deceased.
She argued that the evidence presented proves his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The prosecutor submitted that there is corroborating evidence placing the accused on the scene of the crime and evidence about him having admitted to stabbing the deceased with a knife.
Witness evidence placed the accused running from the scene where the deceased was heard screaming, “Aah, I’m stabbed.”
There was further evidence of the accused giving a bloody knife to one of his friends and saying that he stabbed someone with it.
She added that the identification of the accused by the eyewitness is reliable and was not a matter of mistaken identity.
The accused admitted when he was taken into police custody that he had stabbed a male person whom he did not know, fled the scene and handed the knife to another person.
The advocate argued that in considering the totality of the evidence, the accused’s version and his alibi are not true and stand to be rejected as they are false.
Isaack stated that he was far away from the scene when the incident occurred and that it was another person who stabbed the deceased.
The State argued Isaack was not an impressive witness, as his evidence was compounded with bare denials.
Mayavero added that the State led sufficient evidence of the attempted robbery, where prior planning took place between Isaack and other people.
The accused armed himself with an Okapi knife with the intention to threaten the deceased and others into submission to forcefully take from them a 5-litre wine can.
The State implored the court to find Isaack guilty of murder with direct intent and attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances.