Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Nicodemus guilty of double murder

Home National Nicodemus guilty of double murder

WINDHOEK – Windhoek High Court Judge Christi Liebenberg yesterday convicted Lukas Nepela Nikodemus, 49, of two murders and one count of defeating or obstructing the course of justice, but acquitted him on a charge of failing to safeguard a firearm. 

“I am satisfied that the state proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the accused was the one who is responsible for the deaths of the two deceased woman and that he tried to cover his tracks when he burned their bodies,” Judge Liebenberg said during his verdict.  Nikodemus was charged with the murder of 29-year-old Johanie Naruses and 23-year-old Clementia de Wee by shooting them with his pistol whereafter he burned their bodies at a dumpsite near Pioneers Park in Windhoek in an effort to conceal his cowardly act. He faced two counts of murder, one count of defeating or obstructing or attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice and one count of failing to lock away a firearm. 

He pleaded not guilty to all counts at the start of his trial last September but did not provide a plea explanation and put the onus on the state to prove its allegations against him.

Also yesterday, he lost his fourth legal counsel when Vernon Lutibezi asked the judge to allow him to withdraw from the matter citing irreconcilable differences with his client.

According to Lutibezi, the relationship between him and Nikodemus became unbearable as Nikodemus flooded his office with phone calls giving untenable instructions.

He further told the court that Nikodemus has bluntly accused him of not carrying out his instructions and that Nicodemus further claimed he (Lutibezi) did not care for him.
He further said the instructions given by Nikodemus were frivolous and would just be a waste of the court’s time.

Judge Liebenberg granted the defense lawyer’s application and postponed the matter to today at 09h00 for Legal Aid to pronounce itself on whether they are willing to instruct a new lawyer for Nikodemus at this late stage.

Nikodemus told the court that he has already applied to Legal Aid for a new lawyer to assist him in his appeal against conviction, but when Judge Liebenberg pointed out to him that he can only apply for leave to appeal at the end of the trial, he changed his tune and said it was for mitigation.

The judge said Nikodemus made a very poor witness and that his testimony was so full of contradictions that it must be rejected.

He further said that ‘Bennie’, who the accused put on for the offences, was a figment of his imagination that only surfaced two years after his arrest.

According to the judge, while the state’s case rest mostly on circumstantial evidence except for the admission Nikodemus made upon his arrest, the totality of the evidence points in only one direction and that is Nikodemus.

He said the behavior of Nikodemus was that of a guilty person who had something to hide.
The judge found that the defense put up by Nikodemus during the trial was not reasonably possibly true and rejected it in its entirety.