Roland Routh
Windhoek-Judge Christi Liebenberg yesterday convicted Hendrik Nowoseb, 25, for the murder of his former girlfriend, who he killed while recuperating in hospital from a stab wound he had inflicted on her the previous night. Liebenberg found Nowoseb guilty of murder with direct intent as well as one count of attempted murder in the Windhoek High Court.
The judge, however, acquitted Nowoseb on another count of attempted murder and one of housebreaking with intent to murder.
He was charged with breaking into the room of Willemina Tsauses during the night of 6 December 2014 with the intention to murder Tsauses and stabbing her in her upper body with the intent to kill her and during the same time stabbed the new boyfriend of the deceased, Deodorius Khamuxab, with a knife in his face with the intent to murder him.
The next day, it was charged, he went to the hospital where Tsauses was recuperating and stabbed her multiple times in her upper body and neck causing her to die from hypovolemic shock caused by a lung injury sustained during the attack.
He pleaded guilty to the murder charge, but denied the attempted murder charges and the breaking and entering charge as well as intention to commit murder.
According to the judge, the only reasonable conclusion he could arrive at was that Nowoseb acted with the intent to kill during both stabbing incidents, contrary to his evidence that he only wanted to hurt the deceased, to get her to show him respect.
“His actions were clearly premeditated, carefully planned, and likely to have been spawned by jealousy. The accused’s explanation as to why he had stabbed the deceased on both occasions is accordingly rejected as false,” Judge Liebenberg stated.
Regarding the housebreaking with intent to murder charge, the judge said it is not in dispute that the accused went to the house of his uncle in search of the deceased and that he called out her name when he got there.
The only reason for him to call out her name was that he expected to find her there, but did not know in which room she was.
He said it had been established that the deceased woke up and went to the door, in all probability to open it and attend to the accused’s call.
This, the judge said, seems to favour the accused’s version that the door was opened by the deceased before he stepped into the room and that he is accordingly satisfied that the charge was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
On the charge that he intended to kill Khamuxab when the latter was cut in the face with the same knife Nowoseb stabbed the deceased with, the judge said that on the evidence adduced nothing suggested that the accused had the intention to stab Khamuxab.
“This is consistent with the nature of the wound inflicted being a cut and not a stab wound. It is common cause that the accused was grabbed by Deodorius on both hands where after a struggle ensued and [resulting in] them falling down onto the bed,” Judge Liebenberg said and added that it had not been established that the accused acted with intent when Khamuxab got injured.
Sentence will be delivered on Monday, 21 August at 08h00 and Nowoseb, who is represented by Natji Tjirera, from Legal Aid Centre will remain in custody.