WINDHOEK – A woman accused of fatally stabbing her live-in boyfriend 17 times in 2009 is awaiting her psychiatric evaluation report.
Laimi Goagoses, 35, is on trial on a charge of murder for the death of her boyfriend, Horst Gunther Radecke, 57. Radecke lost his life in the attack that took place on December 23, 2009 in Tempel Street, Dolam in Katutura.
Goagoses, on the state’s request, was taken for a mental evaluation. The state wants to find out if she was of sound mind when she allegedly committed the crime. Furthermore, if she is fit to stand trial.
While making an appearance from custody in the Windhoek Regional Court last week, Goagoses was informed that her evaluation report was not ready.
At the start of the trial in March 2012, Goagoses took a no guilty plea to the charge of murder, saying she could not recall the events that led to her boyfriend’s death. Goagoses, who abandoned her own application to undergo psychiatric evaluation, said she could not recall what happened. She testified that she only recalls going to the bathroom when they got home and when the police were removing her from Radecke’s body.
It transpired during trial that the couple were apparently out all day drinking and got home in the evening. Upon their arrival at home, an argument erupted which led to a fight during which the deceased allegedly started assaulting Goagoses. She ran to the kitchen and grabbed a bread knife, storming back to the bedroom where she stabbed him.
According to the police, four bloodstained steak knives were found at the scene. One knife lay in a bedroom, where the presence of blood indicated the stabbing could have started, while a knife of which the blade had been bent, another knife of which the blade had been broken off, and a fourth knife, still intact, were found outside the house where Radecke lay dead next to a car.
Goagoses was found with a fifth knife in her trouser pocket.
The court postponed the matter to September 16.
Police officers that arrived at the scene on the day of the incident allegedly found the accused Goagoses on top of the deceased holding a knife, at the same time shaking his lifeless body. In her defence, Goagoses said she was simply looking if the deceased was still alive.
It is alleged there was nobody at home apart from the deceased and the accused during the incident.