‘Massive coincidence’ in Nimt murder case

Former Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology (Nimt) employee Ernst Lichtenstrasser’s presence in the Arandis area on the same day that the institute’s two top executives were murdered was just “a massive coincidence”, Lichtenstrasser’s defence lawyer argued during his trial in the Windhoek High Court on Monday.

There is no point in denying that by coincidence Lichtenstrasser was in the Arandis area when Nimt executive director Eckhart Mueller and his deputy, Heimo Hellwig, were killed on 15 April 2019, but he gave a reasonable explanation for his presence there, defence lawyer Albert Titus said in arguments heard by judge Christie Liebenberg.

Liebenberg heard the closing arguments of Titus and deputy prosecutor general Antonia Verhoef, representing the state, before he reserved his judgement and postponed the matter to 14 November for the delivery of his verdict.

Lichtenstrasser (62) denied guilt on all charges when his trial started in February 2021.

The state is alleging that Lichtenstrasser murdered Mueller (72) and Hellwig (60) by shooting them repeatedly with a 9mm pistol at the Nimt head office at Arandis on the morning of 15 April 2019.

There was no known eyewitness to the killings.

It is also alleged that Lichtenstrasser had been involved in a workplace dispute with the Nimt leadership, which decided to transfer him from the institute’s campus at Tsumeb to the Nimt campus at Keetmans­hoop, before the two men were killed.

Lichtenstrasser is being prosecuted on eight criminal charges, including two counts of murder, charges of possession of a firearm and ammunition without a licence, and a count of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.

Lichtenstrasser’s explanation for his presence in the Arandis area was that he had a heated argument with his wife at their home at Otavi the previous day, and that he decided to drive to the coast to see a colleague with whom he wanted to discuss concerns about the management of Nimt, Titus recounted in his address to the court.

On the way to the coast, he decided to instead spend some time meditating in the desert between Usakos and Arandis, where he was when the double murder was committed at Arandis, Lichtenstrasser has told the court.

Arguing that Lichtenstrasser’s version was reasonably possibly true, Titus asked the judge to acquit him on all charges.

He also argued that a confession which Lichtenstrasser is alleged to have made to police officers at Walvis Bay on 15 May 2019 was made under duress, and that the contents of the alleged confession were merely a repetition of information that police officers had fed him during numerous interrogation sessions.

Titus further argued that the court cannot find that a disassembled 9mm pistol which police officers testified was found buried in the desert near Arandis on 17 May 2019 was proven to be the firearm with which the two murders were committed, as there were “many obvious breaks” in the chain of evidence supposed to connect the pistol to the killings.

Verhoef argued that the state’s evidence proved it was Lichtenstrasser who killed Mueller and Hellwig.

She noted that DNA matching Lichtenstrasser’s DNA profile was detected on the firearm parts and gun holster that the police found buried near Arandis a month after the murders, and the same firearm was ballistically linked to cartridge casings collected at the crime scene, Lichtenstrasser’s house at Otavi, and a shooting range that he had used at a farm in the Tsumeb area.

Although the defence got an expert witness from South Africa to examine the firearm evidence, the defence decided not to present that witness’ evidence to the court, with the result that the state’s ballistics evidence, which incriminates Lichtenstrasser, remains uncontradicted, Verhoef argued as well.

She also noted that Mueller had told other members of the Nimt management, after a visit he had made to the institute’s campus at Tsumeb near the end of January 2019, that Lichtenstrasser had made a threat to him by telling him to sleep with one eye open.

Verhoef asked the judge to convict Lichtenstrasser on all charges.

Lichtenstrasser, who was arrested at Karibib on the evening of 16 April 2019, has been held in custody since his arrest.