WINDHOEK - Windhoek High Court Acting Judge Alfred Siboleka yesterday sentenced double murder convict, Petrus Paai, to two life imprisonment terms.
Judge Siboleka convicted the 28-year-old Paai on two counts of murder, one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances and one count of defeating or obstructing the course of justice for hiding the knives he used in the murders.
On the robbery conviction, he was sentenced to a prison term of six years and on the defeating the course of justice conviction three months.
All these sentences are, however, to run concurrently as the Namibian Constitution makes only provision for a convict to serve one term of life imprisonment and Paai would be eligible for parole after serving 25 years, if he behave while in custody.
He was charged on the first count for killing Frederick Afrikaner to death on 1 August 2015 and the second murder count for killing Kapenaweholenge Heliki Hamutenya on 11 June 2016.
Both incidents occurred in Gobabis.
The robbery charge emanated from him taking N$100 from the shirt pocket of the dying Hamutenya.
“On the first count of murder, the accused chased and attacked the deceased with a knife, stabbing him on the neck as a result of which he died at the scene and on the second count, nine months after the first murder, the then bailed accused attacked the second deceased with a knife, stabbing him on the neck as a result of which he later died in hospital,” the judge said and continued: “This second count related to the sale of zinc plates. After fatally stabbing the deceased as aforestated, the accused proceeded to insert his hand into the already dying but still standing defenceless deceased and removed a N$100 note from his pocket, and walked away.”
Judge Siboleka further said after the accused has finally robbed the dying deceased in the second count, he did not put the knife back in his pocket where he took it out.
He instead elected to put it in the schoolbag of his sister’s child which caused the police to search for the murder weapon in vain at the murder site.
According to the judge, life, the most precious component of a human being must be protected at all costs and convictees of these crimes must be made to feel the full wrath of the law.
On the interests of society, Judge Siboleka said the accused went on a knife stabbing spree of innocent people for no apparent reason and continued that society requires protection and would like to see convictees of these heinous crimes decisively punished.
He said that he was persuaded by the prosecution that the charges Paai has been convicted of are very serious and the fact that the crimes were directly intended makes them even more serious.
Paai was represented by Titus Mbaeva on instructions of Legal Aid and the prosecution by Advocate Ethel Ndlovu.