Sentencing of trainee pastor’s killer in April

THE sentencing of a man who killed his trainee pastor girlfriend in a knife attack in Windhoek four years ago has been postponed for another three weeks.

Having been convicted of murder committed with the intent to kill in July last year, Andre Dausab (36) was due to be sentenced in the Windhoek High Court yesterday. However, Dausab was informed by acting judge Johanna Salionga that judge Naomi Shivute, who has been presiding over his trial, was unavailable yesterday because of a death in her family, with the result that his sentencing was postponed to 5 April.

Dausab, who has been in custody for more than four years now, remains in jail while awaiting sentencing.

At the start of his trial in September 2016, Dausab denied guilt on a charge of murder, but made some crucial admissions about the incident for which he was being prosecuted.

Dausab admitted in a plea statement that he stabbed his girlfriend, Gofaone Motlamme (32), numerous times in her flat at the United Lutheran Theological Seminary Paulinum in Windhoek on 22 February 2014, and that she died as a result of the stabbing. He added that he and Motlamme, a citizen of Botswana who was a student at the seminary, had quarrelled before the stabbing, and claimed he could not remember what happened during the stabbing “because everything suddenly became dark and confusing around me”.

Dausab also stated that when he came to his senses, he realised he must have stabbed Motlamme. He further claimed that at the time of the stabbing, he could not be held accountable for his actions “because of a temporary emotional disturbance occasioned by emotional stress and emotional breakdown”.

During his trial, the court heard that Motlamme was found lying fatally injured in a pool of blood in her flat after Dausab, apparently in an distraught state, made a phone call to the Windhoek City Police during the afternoon of 22 February 2014, and told the constable who answered his call that he had killed his girlfriend. He also said he had stabbed her out of anger, but had not meant to.

Two broken and bloodstained kitchen knives were found in the flat, while a third bloodstained knife, which was still intact, was also photographed at the scene.

Twenty-seven stab wounds were recorded on Motlamme’s body during a post-mortem examination.

The court also heard that Dausab was unhappy because Motlamme wanted to end their relationship. Testifying in his own defence, Dausab related that he confronted Motlamme after he found messages on her cellphone that indicated she was romantically involved with someone else. He also testified that he remembered that they scuffled over a knife she fetched from her kitchen, and that his last clear memory about events in her flat was seeing blood coming from her neck, and on his hand, and that he had a knife in his hand.

When delivering her verdict near the end of July last year, judge Shivute noted that Dausab was able to tell the police officer who handled his phone call and later also a state psychiatrist what had happened. That was a clear indication that he knew what he was doing, she reasoned.

She also found that Dausab’s behaviour before, during and after the stabbing was not consistent with what one would have expected from someone who had no recollection of the critical moment, and that he could not be exonerated from his actions because of the mental state he claimed to have been in.

Citing accusations that Dausab had levelled against him following the verdict, defence lawyer Brownell Uirab, who represented Dausab during his trial, withdrew from the case after Dausab was found guilty. Dausab has been without legal representation since then.

State advocate Ethel Ndlovu is prosecuting.