Iuze Mukube
Khorixas man Barnabas Nawaseb was last Friday convicted of murder with direct intent for fatally attacking his partner with a pickaxe.
The judgment was delivered by Windhoek High Court Judge Claudia Claasen after the 32-year-old stood trial facing charges of housebreaking with intent to murder and murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act.
Nawaseb faced charges stemming from allegations that during the period between 20-21 December 2022 at Khorixas, he broke into and entered the residence of Metisia Tanises (32) through a window with the intention to murder her and then unlawfully and intentionally killed her.
Judge Claasen rejected Nawaseb’s version of events that the deceased had attacked him first, finding it improbable and false, and noting that he fluctuated between accidentally injuring the deceased and self-defence. She ruled that Nawaseb had not acted in self-defence, leading to his conviction on the charge of murder.
The accused’s explanation was that he and the deceased had an argument on 21 December 2022, and the deceased enlisted the assistance of the police to remove him from her residence. At around midnight she came and fetched him, and after returning to her residence, a quarrel erupted between them again, he added. Nawaseb said he had asked her for the door’s key, but she said she did not know where it was; subsequently, he picked an axe from the kitchen to break the padlock.
He claimed that at that time she grabbed his private parts, which caused him to hit her on the head with the blunt side of the axe, after which he went to sleep at his sister’s house and handed himself over to the police the following day.
He admitted that he hit her several times with an axe, and that she died because of those injuries, and that they were in a relationship.
The State led evidence from several witnesses, including the accused’s cousin Daliana Nawases, who testified that the accused told her that he had “killed” Tanises, the mother of his children. A senior medical officer, Dr Magnus Rutakuremberwa, who conducted the post-mortem, concluded that the cause of death was traumatic brain injury due to the severity of the skull fractures and associated brain damage.
He said the injuries indicated a significant force, resulting in skull fractures that exposed the brain tissue. He disagreed with the proposition that the accused used the blunt edge of the axe to inflict the injuries and opined that the injuries were more consistent with being caused by the sharp side of the axe.
He added that the amount of force used exerted resulted in the sharp edge of the axe penetrating the skull and causing damage to the brain.
Claasen noted that it was not in dispute that the deceased had two minor children in the house that night, one aged four and the other aged five.
“The court finds it unlikely that a mother would leave minors of that age alone to fend for themselves in the middle of the night while she walked to the accused’s mother’s house to beg him to return to her house, a house from where he had been removed by the police earlier that same day,” she pointed out.
She noted that the accused wanted the court to believe he used the pickaxe to break the door lock to escape, but he made no attempt to do so at any point, even after the incident.
Claasen also agreed with the prosecution that after the incident, the accused did not tell anyone that his private parts were sore, and that he needed to be taken for medical attention. Claasen regarded his belated contention that he asked for medical attention from a certain police officer, Mubalo, in response to a question in cross-examination, as an afterthought.
Although the accused was charged with housebreaking with the intent to murder, Claasen was not satisfied that the State had proved that the accused broke into the house.
The case was postponed to 16 May 2025 for mitigation proceedings before sentencing.
Basson Lilungwe is representing the State, and Petrus Grusshaber represented the accused.