Windhoek
A pointing out made by the third accused in the Stoop murder trial in the Windhoek High Court was yesterday formally admitted as evidence by Judge Alfred Siboleka.
The judge earlier this year ruled the pointing out admissible as evidence after a long and arduous trial-within-a-trial where 32-year-old Erwin Kasorere Tjiueza Katjingisua disputed the pointing out he made to Chief Inspector Hermias van Zyl.
Erwin and his elder brother George Tjikuao Katjingisua, 33, along with accused one Nelsiene Utiapatie Kauaria, 31, are charged with the murder and robbery of 78-year-old Gideon Johannes (Koos) Stoop, who was killed in his rented flat.
The Katjingisua siblings and Kauaria are charged with murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances and conspiracy to commit robbery with aggravating circumstances.
The State alleges the suspects during the period August 28 to 29, 2009, killed Stoop at his flat at Erf 304, Shilunga Street in Cimbebasia, a residential suburb of Windhoek.
In the pointing out the judge ruled as evidence in the trial, Erwin Katjingisua told Chief Inspector Van Zyl that he and George Katjingisua (accused 2) arrived at the house of Stoop just minutes after Stoop had parked his car. George went in after Stoop and he followed him, Erwin Katjingisua said in the pointing out. “We entered through the kitchen door which was not locked and we encountered an elderly white man in the middle of the kitchen,” Erwin Katjingisua stated.
He further said that the elderly white man chased them out, in Afrikaans, and George pulled out a knife and both the old man and “Nancy”, as he referred to accused 1, went back into the room.
“George and I asked the old man for money, the safe keys, car keys and the location of the safe and the old man told us he only had N$50,” he stated.
According to him, George pushed the old man down and he fell at the foot of the bed, and then stabbed the old man on the left side of the chest. While George was stabbing the old man, he and “Nancy” searched the room for money, but found nothing.
They then pulled up the old man, Erwin informed Van Zyl, and dragged him to the bathroom where they tied his hands and feet behind his back and put him in the shower cubicle.
In the meantime “Nancy” continued to search for money, but could find nothing, he said. After that they took the TV set and “Nancy” took the “bloody items” and they put all of them in the car of the old man.
But, he said, George could not get the car to start and “Nancy” had left them by then so they decided to stash the TV in the nearby riverbed and retrieve it later, which they did with the car of someone called Sata.
The case continues today and all three accused remain in custody.