WINDHOEK – The trial of a woman accused of ending the life of her live-in boyfriend by stabbing him 17-times has reached its final stages as closing arguments will be heard in Windhoek Regional Court in three weeks’ time.
The accused, Laimi Goagoses, 35, made a brief appearance before magistrate Elina Nandago yesterday.
Goagoses is on trial on a charge of murder for the death of her boyfriend, Horst Gunther Radecke, 57. Radecke was killed on December 23, 2009 on Tempel Street, Dolam in Katutura.
The trial was postponed to November 25 to allow the prosecution and defence to prepare their closing arguments. The prosecution and defence closed their cases in August.
At the start of the trial in March 2012, Goagoses took a no guilty plea to the charge of murder, saying she could not recall the events that led to her boyfriend’s death.
She testified that she only recalls going to the bathroom when they got home and the time when the police were removing Radecke’s body. Goagoses’ psychiatric evaluation report is yet to be placed on record.
It transpired during trial that the couple was apparently out all day drinking and got home in the evening. Upon their arrival at home, an argument erupted which led to a fight during which the deceased allegedly started assaulting Goagoses. She ran to the kitchen and grabbed a bread knife, storming back to the bedroom where she stabbed him.
Per the police, four bloodstained steak knives were found at the scene. One knife lay in a bedroom, where the presence of blood indicated the stabbing could have started, while a knife of which the blade had been bent, another knife of which the blade had been broken off, and a fourth knife, still intact, were found outside the house where Radecke lay dead next to a car.
Goagoses was found with a fifth knife in her trouser pocket.
Police officers that arrived at the scene on the day of the incident allegedly found the accused on top of the deceased holding a knife, at the same time shaking his lifeless body. In her defence, Goagoses said she was simply determining if the deceased was still alive.
It is alleged there was nobody at home apart from the deceased and the accused during the incident.
Local defence attorney Titus Mbaeva is representing Goagoses while Menencia Hinda is prosecuting for the State.