Youth gets 10 years for robbing and stabbing off-duty cop
A young thief was left to rue his craving for quick cash, as well as his ill-advised choice of victim: an off-duty police officer.
Bokamoso John Mbure, 21, has the next ten years to mull over his life decisions after Extension II Magistrates Court sentenced him to a decade behind bars for violent robbery last Friday.
Despite his grandmother’s best efforts to save him, Mbure was found guilty of stabbing, Itani Sedao, and stealing the cop’s cellphone during a late night attack in Gaborone’s Extension 14 location on 6 April 2024.
Adding salt to injury, his co-accused, Tumisang Gabashe, got off scot-free and was acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
Mbure’s fate was ultimately sealed after the complainant and his girlfriend positively identified him as the man who attacked them.
Court accepted that adequate lighting from park and traffic lights at the scene enabled clear recognition, effectively excluding the possibility of mistaken identity.
It was heard Sedao paid a painful price for trying to resist the robbery, stabbed several times on the thigh and leg with a sharp instrument. The thief then made away with a purple Samsung Galaxy A3 cellphone and a black wallet.
In his defence, Mbure insisted he had been with his grandmother at the time, with the old woman backing this up in court.
However, the Magistrate found her evidence to be unreliable and biased, rejecting the alibi as an afterthought.
Meanwhile, although it was established Gabashe was involved in pawning the stolen phone, court noted there was no direct evidence that he participated in the actual robbery or knew the phone was stolen.
With the State failing to prove its case against him beyond a reasonable doubt, Gabashe walked away a free man.
Mbure was not so fortunate!
