Unagoni Alton, who was convicted for a single charge of murder, was yesterday told he would have to hang by the neck for killing Kefilwe Mogorosi on October 25, 2012.
When sentencing him, the Judge said he found no extenuating circumstances and that it was a clear case where death penalty must be imposed. “I find that this is a clear case where death penalty must be imposed. I find that at the age of 25 years, he was old enough to appreciate that killing another human being was wrong,” said the Judge.
Justice Gabanagae explained that the mitigation that at the time of the commission of the offence, the accused was relatively young at the age of 25 years was not good enough as he was old enough to know better.
He said the fact that the deceased was found naked at the scene meant she was probably raped before she was killed and that he repeatedly cut her neck to ensure that she was dead.
“Accused was not so intoxicated, if at all he was that he did not appreciate what he was doing. He had the strength to drag a person who was resisting from outside into the house, stabbed her numerous times and cut her throat.
He left the knife stuck deeply in the deceased’s neck then locked the door and jumped over the fence and fled the scene,” Judge Gabanagae explained. The judge pointed out that it was intriguing how the deceased would ask the convicted to have sex with him and at the same time hurl insults at him as he claimed in his confession statement. He said it was not true that the deceased hurled insults at him as the witness who saw him dragging her into the house did not hear the deceased insulting him.
The judge further noted that the deceased had lied in his unsworn testimony that he stabbed the deceased with a knife that he found in the bedroom where he and deceased were fighting. “In your confession statement admitted by your attorney, you state that you had a table knife in on your possession. You went to the deceased’s place in possession of the table knife. You clearly went to the deceased’s place with the sole intention of killing her in view of the manner the deceased was stabbed,” he said.
Judge Gabanagae explained that there were eight stab wounds on different parts of the deceased’s body and that there were also defensive wounds on her hands demonstrating that she was trying to block the accused’s knife. Furthermore, that the pathologist stated that it was impossible that the wounds were consistent with the accused defending himself against the deceased who had grabbed his testicles since the deceased died a violent death and what he did could be termed as ‘overkill’. “I find that the murder of the deceased is aggravated in nature. Accused went to see or talk to the deceased with a knife in his possession.
He had every intent to at least inflict harm or pain on the deceased and not just to talk. The wounds inflicted on the deceased and the manner in which she was killed was brutal,” he emphasised. Meanwhile, before Alton was sentenced his counsel had submitted that factors were present which cumulatively affected the accused’s state of mind at the relevant time and were of such significance as to reduce his moral blameworthiness. Some of the factors being that he had been drinking and actually drank 12 quarts of Black Label beer the previous night nonstop up and until the commission of the offence the next day early in the morning.
That he was belittled with insults by the deceased labelling him useless individual of no value and that he was always after girls, that he was grabbed by his testicles and also that he was convinced the deceased was cheating on him as he and actually found love messages on the deceased’s phone which played a part in forming some irrational thinking in his head leading to the violent death as described by the pathologist.
