Windhoek
Gobabis resident Erwin Tebele, who stands accused of killing his live-in girlfriend and mother of his minor child, pleaded not guilty this week to the charge of murder in the High Court before Judge Dinah Usiku.
According to Tebele, the deceased, Nina Katjatenja, was accidentally stabbed in the chest by him during a struggle for the knife.
His state-funded lawyer, Mbanga Siyomunji, told the court his client claims self-defense, as he was allegedly defending himself from the deceased when she was killed.
Siyomunji said his client was stabbed twice on the left arm with the same knife by the deceased and it was while he was trying to wrestle the knife away from her that she was stabbed. Siyomunji further told the court that the accused’s version is that he arrived late on that fateful evening and the deceased started to quarrel with him about his whereabouts earlier that night and took a knife, with which she stabbed him.
According to Tebele, he then tried to take the knife from the deceased and in the process she was stabbed accidentally. Siyomunji said his client would testify that he did not intend to stab the deceased or to cause her death and that he deeply regrets what happened.
According to Siyomunji, the accused will testify that during the scuffle the children ran to their grandfather’s house, which was in the same yard and when the grandfather came there he (Tebele) told him to call the police.
When the police arrived on the scene he was still holding the deceased in his arms, Tebele will testify, Siyomunji told the court.
The deceased died on the scene due to internal bleeding caused by the stab wound.
It is alleged in the indictment that during the late evening of September 3, 2013, the deceased and her two children were asleep inside the house they shared with the accused at Freedom Square in Epako in the district of Gobabis.
After the accused arrived home a quarrel ensued between him and the deceased and he grabbed a knife and stabbed the deceased once in the chest.
So far two children of the deceased have testified, but as they are minors they may not be identified.