A WINDHOEK resident who this week admitted that he murdered his police officer girlfriend by strangling her in the house they shared is due to be sentenced in the Windhoek High Court in June.
Judge Christie Liebenberg postponed the sentencing of Justus Mbirimujo (32) to 14 June after he heard last oral arguments from deputy prosecutor general Antonia Verhoef and defence lawyer Enos Mwakondange on Tuesday.
Mwakondange ended his address to the judge by suggesting that Mbirimujo, who on Monday admitted guilt on a charge of murder, should be sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, of which five years are suspended.
Verhoef remarked that the sentence suggested by Mwakondange was out of line with past cases similar to Mbirimujo’s. The only appropriate sentence for Mbirimujo would be a long term of imprisonment, she said.
Liebenberg convicted Mbirimujo of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, after he admitted that he killed the 29-year-old Kauaa Karuuombe, who was his girlfriend, in their house in the Otjomuise area of Windhoek on 21 October 2021.
Karuuombe was a member of the Namibian Police’s Special Reserve Force and a mother of four children, the court has been informed. Mbirimujo is the father of her two youngest children, the court also heard.
Mbirimujo said in a written plea statement that Karuuombe left him alone at home with one of their children on the evening that the fatal incident took place.
He said he went to look for her late that evening, and asked her to return home with him when he found her.
On their way home, he said, there was “a heated exchange” between him and Karuuombe during which she swore at him and threatened him with her position as a police officer.
He added that after their arrival home, “a brawl erupted”. During this fight, he said, he pressed Karuuombe down on a mattress, “placed my hands on her neck and strangled her with the intention to kill her”.
Mbirimujo stated: “I strangled her until she died. I then stopped after I observed that she was dead.”
He continued that he went to sleep after the killing.
The next morning, he took his and Karuuombe’s baby to a family member’s house.
Mbirimuje said he then tried to end his life by suicide. This did not succeed.
He said he approached his uncle for advice after that. His uncle advised him to take responsibility for the crime he had committed and escorted him to a police station to report the matter, he added.
The court has also been informed that Karuuombe got married to another man at Gobabis three weeks before she was killed.
The state alleged in its indictment that Mbirimujo indicated to friends and relatives before the incident that he was unhappy about Karuuombe’s decision to get married to someone else.
Testifying in mitigation of sentence on Tuesday, Mbirimujo denied that he was aware that Karuuombe had got married. Since he did not know about it, he did not have a problem with her marriage, he said.
Mbirimujo, who made a living as a taxi driver before he murdered Karuuombe, is a first-time offender, and the guilty plea that he tendered “suggests a certain degree of remorse”, Mwakondange argued.
Verhoef noted that Karuuombe was a breadwinner for her family and that she served her country as a police officer. Her murder had a rippling effect through her family, with her four children now in the care of family members, Verhoef said.
Considering a long line of similar cases that went through the High Court in the past, a long period of imprisonment for Mbirimujo is inevitable, she argued.
Mbirimujo was arrested on 22 October 2021, and has been held in custody since then.
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