Groot Aub murderer sent to prison for 45 years

“YOUR actions were clearly callous, evil and barbaric”.

This was part of the message that judge Nate Ndauendapo had for Groot Aub resident Gregory Kangandjera in the Windhoek High Court yesterday, when he sentenced Kangandjera to an effective 45 years’ imprisonment in connection with the murder of his girlfriend in November 2010.

Kangandjera (39) was sentenced to 45 years’ imprisonment on a charge of murder, a five-year jail term for attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice, and a one-year prison term on a count of assault. The judge ordered that the sentences on the charges of assault and attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice should be served concurrently with the sentence on the murder charge.

Kangandjera was found guilty on 1 July.

Judge Ndauendapo described the crimes of which Kangandjera was convicted as “well planned and calculated”. He recounted that after Kangandjera (39) had savagely assaulted and strangled his late girlfriend, Loretta Kruger (32), he tried to create a scene that would make it appear as if she had committed suicide by hanging herself. However, that attempt failed, as Kruger had been so seriously injured when she was assaulted by Kangandjera that she would have been unable to walk from the house where she and Kangandjera lived to the spot where her body was later found, and also would not have been able to climb up a tree to tie a rope with which she supposedly hanged herself, the judge commented.

In his verdict, judge Ndauendapo found that Kruger died as a result of strangulation, and that Kangandjera was the only person who could have strangled her.

He reasoned that Kangandjera had been angry with Kruger after he had seen her dancing with another man at a bar at Groot Aub on the evening of 13 November 2010. Kangandjera assaulted her dancing partner, and then assaulted Kruger in an attack in which he also kicked her while she was lying on the ground. Kruger was last seen bedridden and unable to move, with her face and body swollen, in Kangandjera’s room, judge Ndauendapo recounted yesterday.

After her body had been found under a tree about 300 metres from Kangandjera’s room on 18 November 2010, it was discovered that she had several broken ribs. A medical doctor who carried out an autopsy on Kruger told the court the multiple rib fractures she had suffered would have made it very painful and difficult for her to move. The doctor also concluded that she had died as a result of strangulation.

In his verdict, Judge Ndauendapo said that considering the evidence about the injured condition Kruger was in, she would not have been able to move on her own, and that multiple injuries found on her body looked like she had been dragged over a rough surface, “the conclusion is inescapable that somebody must have dragged her to the place where her body was found, and that somebody is the accused [Kangandjera]”.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Kangandjera continued to claim after he had been found guilty that Kruger had hanged herself, judge Ndauendapo also noted. Kangandjera did not show any remorse, he concluded.

Noting that one of the state’s witnesses had told the court that when Kangandjera assaulted Kruger he said he would kill somebody, go to prison, and again come out, judge Ndauendapo commented: “To prison you will go, but to come out, not so early, and perhaps by the time you come out, you will be a rehabilitated old man.”

Kangandjera has been in custody for close to six years. He was represented by defence lawyer Joshua Kaumbi. State advocate Palmer Kumalo represented the prosecution during his trial.