Judge convicts three over deadly robbery

ALL three men accused of having carried out a fatal armed robbery in Windhoek’s Northern Industrial Area near the end of 2009 were found guilty in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

Judge Naomi Shivute convicted the three men – Willem Kawulefelwa Valombola (44), Toivo Kashipolo (36), and Fillipus Shishiveni Nomongula (38) – on counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and possession of a firearm without a licence, and also two charges of attempted murder, but acquitted them of possession of ammunition without a licence.

The three men denied guilt on all charges during their trial, which began in October 2013.

Judge Shivute found that the evidence before her proved the three accused men had taken part in an armed robbery that claimed the life of a security company owner, Andries de Jager (68), on 2 November 2009. She also found that the three men acted in concert when the robbery was carried out, that Kashipolo fired the shot which resulted in De Jager’s death and also fired shots through the windscreen of the car of a woman who drove past the scene while he was fleeing from there, that Valombola drove the gang’s getaway car, and that Nomongula was the person who fired shots at a colleague of De Jager during the robbery.

De Jager was shot with an intention to kill him, and the shots directed at his colleague and the woman who drove past the scene were also fired with an intention to kill them, the judge further found.

The robbery that cost De Jager his life took place at the office of HAMS Security Services in the Northern Industrial Area in Windhoek after De Jager and a colleague had returned to the office with money that they had withdrawn at a bank to pay employees’ monthly salaries. A briefcase containing N$172 488,10 was stolen during the robbery.

Witnesses who were at the scene during the robbery testified that one of the robbers fled on foot with the briefcase that had been stolen from De Jager.

With some of the security company’s employees pursuing the robber, he eventually dropped the suitcase as he continued to flee. The suspect’s flight came to an end when he was struck by a bullet fired by one of the people trying to apprehend him.

The injured man was Kashipolo. His cellphone and a .38 Special revolver were found close to the scene where he was caught. A ballistics expert later concluded that a bullet point that was removed from De Jager’s body had been fired from the .38 Special revolver.

Cellphone records also showed that Kashipolo and Valombola had been in phone contact on the day of the robbery.

While Valombola claimed that he only knew Kashipolo as a result of his work as a car mechanic, the court heard that the Windhoek City Police had recorded an incident in which the two men were found in suspicious circumstances, apparently staking out a shop in Windhoek, in a BMW with false registration plates on 17 September 2009.

The BMW in which the Windhoek City Police observed the two men a month and a half before the robbery at HAMS Security Services matched the description of the getaway car that was used during the robbery.

Judge Shivute noted that Valombola not only tried to disassociate himself from Kashipolo, but at first also lied to the police when he denied owning a car that matched the description of two of the robbers’ getaway car.

Fingerprints of Nomongula were found on the car when it was traced after the robbery. However, Nomongula claimed to have been at Grootfontein on 2 November 2009. He suggested that his fingerprints might have ended up on the car when the police forced him to show them where he sat in the vehicle on the day of the robbery.

The fingerprints were lifted from the car more than a month before Nomongula’s arrest in December 2009, though, Judge Shivute noted.

She also noted that according to police officers Kashipolo told them to look for Nomongula, saying that Nomongula got him involved in the robbery and was the cause of him having been shot.

The three convicted men have to return to court on Thursday. Valombola had been free on bail during the trial, but his bail was cancelled after the delivery of the verdict yesterday.