WINDHOEK – The prosecution on Wednesday asked Windhoek High Court Acting Judge Alfred Siboleka to sentence a young man convicted of murder with direct intent for killing his girlfriend near Independence Beach in Walvis Bay on November 10, 2014 to life imprisonment.
Jomo Petrus, 34, was found guilty of murder with direct intent for killing his girlfriend, 24-year old Louise Ross Shimunu Alupe with a firearm he stole from his uncle, Jason Shali Kasheeta by Judge Siboleka.
He was further convicted on a charge of theft of a firearm.
State Advocate Salomon Kanyemba asked the court to order that the murder convict stay in prison until he is so old that he is unable to lift his hands for a woman.
Legal Aid lawyer Mpokiseng Dube, who acted on behalf of Petrus argued that his client is still a young man who can be rehabilitated and become a useful member of society when released from prison. Kanyemba on the other hand told the court that Petrus did not show any signs of remorse and insisted until the last minute that Alupe died as a result of a tragic accident.
Petrus during his trial denied that he intentionally shot Alupe saying the firearm went off accidentally when he and the deceased were struggling for possession of it.
Judge Siboleka however found that the wounds do not tally with the evidence of Petrus that the deceased was accidentally shot. “These entry gunshot wounds cannot be in my view the result of an accidental discharge of the bullets during a tussle for the firearm,” the judge said and continued: “They appear to be direct shots from a person possessing the gun, in this case the accused himself.”
Kanyemba said that Petrus killed the deceased because he was angry at her for trying to break up with him.
Dube told the judge that a sentence that will not break the convict should be the norm and said that a life sentence where a convict is expected to serve at least 25 years before being considered for parole would be in order.
Petrus claimed that he wanted to commit suicide with the firearm, but that it failed to discharge several times when he tried it on himself.
He further said that after he failed to commit suicide, he put the weapon in a bag and went to the residence of Alupe to speak to her about his suicidal tendencies and when they arrived at the beach she removed the gun from the bag and they struggled for it and a shot went off.
Judge Siboleka however rejected that evidence as an outright lie and said: “There is no reason why Petrus would engage in a struggle for a gun he long found not to be in a working condition after pulling the trigger several times as he testified.”
The judge reserved judgment on the sentence to June 19 and remanded Petrus in custody at the Windhoek Correctional Facility after his bail was cancelled upon his conviction.