Roland Routh

WINDHOEK – A Rehoboth resident accused of stabbing to death a man who came to the aid of the accused’s former girlfriend denied quilt.
Sagarius Levi (26) appeared during a continuing trial in the Windhoek High Court on Monday.
 He allegedly stabbed Harold Rooi to death in Rehoboth’s Block E in 2018.
Levi pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and one count of housebreaking with intent to murder and attempted murder alternatively housebreaking with intent to murder and assault by threat.
He did not give a plea explanation and told Windhoek High Court Judge Dinnah Usiku at the high court situated at the Windhoek Correctional Facility that he will remain silent and let the State prove all the allegations.
His State funded lawyer Kalundu Kamwi confirmed the pleas.
It however came out through cross-examination, that his defence is that he acted in self defence when the deceased, Rooi slapped and pushed him.
According to the State, the accused broke into the residence of Theresia Doeses and Rolena Garises during the period 11 to 12 November 2018, with the intent to murder Garises by putting a knife to her neck and threatened to cut off her head, causing Garises to believe he would carry out his threat.
It is further alleged that when Rooi came to the assistance of Garises, he stabbed him once in the neck causing Rooi to die due to loss of blood.
One of the State witnesses, Polley Prince Friede, who was present at the scene told the court that he and the deceased were busy consuming some liquor on that fateful evening, when they heard a woman screaming, help me; help me. He went on to say that when they went to investigate, they found the accused in the doorway of the shack where Garises resided with an open knife in his hand.
Levi was agitated and was entering and leaving the house at regular intervals, the witness said through an interpreter.
He further said that they then tried to talk to Levi to stop what he was doing and leave everything to the next day when he would be calm. As they were trying to talk to Levi, Friede said, they heard Garises from inside the house saying that the conduct of Levi would cause her the room she was renting at the shack and if he would get her another place to stay if she gets evicted. He went on to say that Rooi then proposed that Garises should stay in his room while looking for another place as he was leaving and won’t be back for at least a week.
According to Friede, the words were barely out of Rooi’s mouth when Rooi turned to him and blood sprayed onto his face, while Rooi uttered the words “I have been stabbed” and ran to his sister’s house a few metres away.   
He further said that he then followed Rooi to where he sagged against a shack at his sister’s house.
The sister, Claudia testified that she was asleep when she heard a noise outside her house and her brother calling her “sister, sister I have been stabbed.
She further said that when she went out, she just saw a lot of blood coming from the left side of her brother’s neck and she then woke up her boyfriend who take the deceased to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The matter continues with Hezekiel Ipinge representing the State.