A resident from the Ndiyona village near Rundu was on Tuesday convicted of the murders of his wife and minor son by Oshakati High Court Judge Eduard Kesslau. 

Vensinlaus Mbangu Mutero was found guilty of murder with direct intent to kill for shooting to death his wife Rosalia Shirenga Shitshoni and his son Alexius Vipanda Mutero, whom he shot twice in the head with a firearm. 

Mutero pleaded not guilty to both counts, and said his wife was killed when they struggled for the firearm, and a shot went off. 

The judge, however, found that this was a fabrication, and that the accused shot his wife twice in the head with the intent to murder her. 

With regards to the charge that he shot and killed his son, he said he fired two shots in the darkness to warn people to stay away, and did not know that he killed his son. 

The accused claimed he only heard the next day from the police that his son was struck by the bullets. 

However, one of the state witnesses told the court that she met the accused that evening after he had shot his wife. 

She said she heard a gunshot, saw the accused firing a second shot at his son from a distance of two metres, and that she saw the boy falling. All this is said to have happened on 25 September 2015 at the Ndiyona village.

Judge Kesslau said while there were minor contradictions in the evidence of the State witnesses, he was satisfied that they gave a reliable version of what had transpired.

The judge said, considering the evidence before the court by the eyewitnesses, the admissions made by the accused in both his warning statement and the confession to the magistrate, it is clear the version of events that the accused gave under oath in court came as an afterthought, and that it can safely be rejected as false. 

“The evidence against the accused is overwhelming, and it was proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused fired the pistol twice at his [now-]late wife,” the judge said.

“The medical evidence and the suggestion from the accused during evidence indicates that his late wife was covering her head in a protective manner whilst fleeing at the time. The fact that he aimed at her head and that he fired two shots is an indication that he had the direct intention to kill her,” Judge Kesslau stated.

He went on to say that regarding the second charge, the evidence was that visibility was clear at the second scene – and the witness, who was even farther away than the accused from his child, could clearly identify the child. 

The evidence is that the accused, in fact, lowered the gun to aim at his six-year-old son, aimed at his head and fired the pistol twice. 

This, he said, is similarly an indication that he had the direct intent to kill. 

The case continues with pre-sentencing procedures, and Mutero will remain in custody. He was represented by Legal Aid lawyer A Shiningayamwe, and the state by VT Shigweda.