Judgement reserved in city double murder trial

THE verdict in the trial of a Windhoek resident charged with having murdered two women in the city at the start of 2016 is set to be delivered in the High Court on Tuesday next week.

Judge Christie Liebenberg reserved judgement in the trial of Lukas Nepela Nikodemus after hearing closing arguments from state advocate Cliff Lutibezi and defence lawyer Vernon Lutibezi in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

With the prosecutor having argued that Nikodemus should be found guilty on all four of the charges on which he has been standing trial, and the defence lawyer arguing that Nikodemus’ guilt has not been proven, judge Liebenberg said he would be ready to deliver his verdict by the start of next week.

The state is charging that Nikodemus murdered two women, Johanie Naruses (29) and Clementia de Wee (23), by shooting them with a firearm after the three of them had left a bar in Katutura in Windhoek during the evening of 6 January 2016.

The state is also alleging that he dumped the women’s bodies at a refuse site near Pionierspark in Windhoek, and set their corpses on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence and hinder the police’s investigation of their deaths. The bodies were found at the dumpsite on 7 January 2016.

Nikodemus is standing trial on two counts of murder, a charge of defeating or obstructing the course of justice, and a charge of failing to lock away a firearm. He denied guilt on all of the charges with the start of his trial in October last year.

Testifying in his own defence in April, Nikodemus told the court he was romantically involved with both Naruses and De Wee – and also other women – at the same time. He related that he, Naruses, De Wee and a friend of his visited bars in Katutura during the evening of 6 January 2016, and later went to the house in Katutura where he lived.

According to Nikodemus, the last he saw of Naruses and De Wee was when they and a friend of De Wee, whom he knew only as “Bennie”, left his house with his car, which De Wee had asked to use so that she and Naruses could go and buy beer and ciders for themselves. He told the court that Bennie returned to his house after midnight to return his car keys to him, while telling him his car had got stuck somewhere in Otjomuise.

The prosecutor argued yesterday that blood linked to the two women that was found in Nikodemus’ car, and also two bullet holes in the car’s seats, showed that Naruses and De Wee were killed in the vehicle. He also argued that Nikodemus was linked to the shooting by a bullet point that was discovered lodged in the back seat of his car, and which was ballistically matched to a pistol found at his house.

Nikodemus’ version that the two women had left his house in the company of one Bennie only emerged two years after his arrest, and was an afterthought, the prosecutor argued further.

As a whole, the evidence before the court points to Nikodemus as the perpetrator of the murder of Naruses and De Wee, he argued.

The defence lawyer, however, argued that the killings and thereafter the burning of the two women’s bodies could not be conclusively linked to Nikodemus.

He also argued that there was no direct evidence showing that Nikodemus shot Naruses and De Wee, and remarked that it was possible that someone else with the same type of pistol as the one found in Nikodemus’ house could have killed the two women.

Nikodemus’ version that he had been framed by Bennie could be reasonably possibly true, with the result that he should be found not guilty, the defence lawyer also argued in conclusion.

Nikodemus has remained in custody since his arrest on 7 January 2016.