A resident from the Mix settlement north of Windhoek on Monday pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act.
Henok Negodhi (43) did not give a plea explanation, and his Legal Aid-instructed lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji confirmed the plea.
Siyomunji also told Windhoek High Court Judge Herman January that his client will remain silent, and the basis of his plea will become apparent during the trial.
It, however, emerged during the cross-examination of one of the state witnesses that Negodhi will claim he was attacked by the victim with a knife.
It is alleged by the state that Negodhi killed his common-law wife, Ndapandula Ndinelago Imene, by stabbing her at least 16 times with a knife on Christmas Day in 2021.
According to the charge sheet, he stabbed Imene in the bedroom of their shack at Mix Settlement.
During the attack, she called for the assistance of her two minor sons. However, the boys failed to stop the accused from stabbing their mother, and called a neighbour to assist.
Unfortunately, Imene died on the scene due to blood loss caused by the stab wounds. It is further alleged that after stabbing Imene, the accused washed her blood from his hands, changed his clothes and fled the scene.
The neighbour, Martha Popyeni Mateus, yesterday took the stand
and told the court she was asleep when she heard the boys calling her.
They told her that the accused
was stabbing their mother in the
ribs. She immediately went to her house, where she called the couple’s names, but to no avail.
She then went inside and climbed on top of a pile of firewood to look through a small opening inside the bedroom.
Mateus said she could only see Imene lying on her back on the bed with her feet dangling from the mattress. She also observed blood on the body of the deceased.
The witness said she saw Negodhi when she climbed off the pile of firewood, and that he was wearing a red T-shirt. She then went outside, closed the door and held on to it.
But the accused overpowered her, pushed the door open, and left the scene.
During cross-examination, Siyomunji managed to have the witness concede that she might have forgotten some details of the night, but on a question from the judge as to what these details were, she just said she could not remember.
Negodhi remains in custody at the Windhoek Correctional Facility’s section for trial-awaiting inmates.
The state is being represented
by Anna Amukugo.