WINDHOEK - A resident of Westerkim in Karasburg started to testify in his own defense yesterday on a charge of murder read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, 4 of 2003 before newly appointed Acting Judge of the Windhoek High Court Eileen Rakow.

Rynardt Wylie Roelf, 35, stands accused of beating his 20-year-old girlfriend to death for disobeying his instructions that she remain at home while he went to work.

According to the indictment, Roelf instructed Kathrina Aloyisa Alexander not to leave the residence they shared in Westerkim during the early morning hours of January 22, last year while he was at his place of employment.

When he returned home later that day and found out that the deceased had defied his instructions by going into town with a female friend, he got angry and murdered the deceased by beating and hitting her, strangling her and throwing her onto the ground causing her to die on the scene due to head injuries caused by him.

Roelf denied guilt at the start of his trial near the end of June.
According to him, he merely slapped the deceased in retaliation after she slapped him first.
He denies the State’s accusation that he beat her to death.

According to Roelf, he had N$700 in his wallet the night before the incident, which he wanted to use for his vehicle’s license disc, but when he woke up the next morning, N$350 was missing.
He confronted the deceased, but she denied taking the money and he left for work, Roelf narrated to the judge.

He further said that when he returned from work in the afternoon, he found the deceased and a friend sleeping drunk.

He then made a remark to the tune of “so this is my money that makes you sleep like this” and asked the friend to leave his room.

He denied the evidence of the friend, Bonaventura Ortman, that he opened the door aggressively and picked up the sleeping Alexander and shoved her back onto the mattress. According to Roelf, he opened the door the same way he always did and that he woke up Ortman and asked her politely to leave his room.  He said the deceased then woke up and without any reason or provocation started to attack him and he merely defended himself by slapping her once.

He further said that after that they slept and the next day he asked his cousin in whose house, he stays to check up on the deceased, as he was worried about her. Asked why he was worried, he said that it was because he loved the deceased very much and was sorry for the fight they had the previous night.
He also denied the testimony of his cousin, Valencius Roelf, that he threatened the deceased to stay home and not leave the house.

Asked by State Advocate Tangeni Itula, why these people who are his friends and family would come to court and lie about important things, the accused merely shook his head and said I don’t know.
The case is continuing and Roelf is represented by Legal Aid lawyer Quinton Haoseb.
His bail was extended.