2015-03-24Staff Report 2 WINDHOEK - One of the state witnesses in the murder trial of Richard Hange, who is accused of killing his girlfriend at her home in Havana settlement in 2011, yesterday described in gory detail how he (the accused) tried to cut his own throat with a knife. “When he came out of the house he had a knife in his hands,” Cecilia Katjito, the aunt of the deceased, testified. “Seun (the brother of the deceased) turned around and went out of the house when he saw Hange came out with the knife, but I stayed and looked him in the eye,” she testified. According to the witness, she was at her home not far from the scene when she saw a lot of people milling around. “When I arrived there I saw all of these people and asked what was going on,” she narrated, adding that she then told Seun to go into the house with her to see what was going on. When they were about to enter the house, Hange came out of the bedroom and went to stand at the kitchen door, she said, but went back into the bedroom when they wanted to know what was happening. “I then went further into the house and the accused came out again with the knife in his hand,” the witness said. “I then also went outside and saw the accused stab himself in the neck and cut from the right side to the left side of his throat, and again from the left side to the right side,” she said but could not say how many times he cut himself. “Hange then stumbled into the house and fell down in the kitchen,” the witness further narrated. Earlier witnesses also told the court Hange tried to cut his throat, but not in so much detail. Hange’s State funded lawyer, Hipura Ujaha, tried his level best to poke holes in Katjito’s testimony, by accusing her of lying to the court in order to implicate Hange, but the witness stayed steadfast that she was only telling the court what she saw. The trial has been in the meantime been postponed to today for the state pathologist as well as the doctor who operated on Hange to testify. The State alleges Hange killed his live-in girlfriend, Lisa Kandovazu, on September 27, 2011 at her residence in the illegal settlement of Havana in Wanaheda, Windhoek. It is alleged Hange hit the deceased with an unknown blunt object(s) on her head, tried to strangle her and/or stabbed her at least twice with a knife. Kandovazu died on the scene due to blood loss caused by one of the stab wounds while the injuries caused by the blunt force also contributed to the deceased’s demise, it is alleged. Hange denies he killed the deceased and claims she died because of self-inflicted wounds when she allegedly attacked him with a knife. Hange remains in custody and State Advocate Jack Eixab represents the State. 2015-03-24Staff Report 2
