A resident of Gobabis yesterday admitted that he caused the death of his 10-month-old baby boy but denied that he intended to kill the infant.
Dawid Nowaseb (27) told Windhoek High Court Judge Christie Liebenberg that he threw his infant son, August Geinamseb, to the ground in anger, but that he did not intend to kill him.
He admitted this in a plea explanation read into the record by his legal aid lawyer Eliaser Shiikwa. According to the accused, he was at the house of his then girlfriend and the mother of his son when an argument erupted between them after she refused him a sleeping place for the night.
He said the woman, Erna Geinamses, threw sand in his face and physically accosted him while he had the baby on his shoulders.
He went on to say that she also yelled that he wants to kill her, prompting her family members to become aggressive towards him.
As he was afraid of being beaten up, he walked away from the house with the baby still on his shoulders.
“I realised that my ex-girlfriend’s relatives were following me. We had a confrontation and out of anger I intentionally threw the deceased on the ground, injuring his head before I left the scene to my brother’s house where I went to sleep,” he narrated.
Prosecutor Joseph Andreas for the prosecution did not accept the plea, as it did not contain the elements of intent, which he intends to prove.
Geinamses, however, had another explanation to give.
According to her, after the accused fetched the baby and another child, Johannes from her house, she pleaded with him to return the children, but he just kept on walking in the direction of the bushes. She said that she and the woman she was staying with, Lena Geinamses, followed the accused, all the way pleading with him to return the children.
At one stage she said, the accused stopped and told them “today I will kill these two boys and then I will kill myself” before he hoisted the toddler from his shoulders and threw him onto the ground.
She further said that he then ran away and when she went to the child, she saw that he was bleeding from the nose and mouth and that his head was very swollen.
She further said that she took the boy to the hospital in a taxi and he was declared dead on arrival. The boy’s cause of death was determined as multiple fractures to the skull.
Nowaseb is also facing a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and one charge of common assault both read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act to which he pleaded not guilty. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of escape from lawful custody which the State accepted.
The matter continues and Nowaseb remains in custody.
-rrouth@nepc.com.na