Young killer sentenced to hang
On Wednesday, Kitso Makati heard the words he’s been dreading for the last four months: “You will hang by your neck until you die!”
Barring a successful appeal or a Presidential pardon, this is the gruesome fate that awaits the 35-year-old after Francistown High Court saw fit to hand down the ultimate punishment for his bloody deeds.
Makati was only 25 when, in the dead of night on 30 October 2016, he gunned down two Korean nationals in an armed robbery, seemingly shooting the defenceless men without a second thought.
Blasted by a bullet to the neck, Koo Jachul died almost instantly, while his friend and colleague, Jan Moonhan was shot in the thigh but escaped with his life.
In the country as part of an international company that won a tender to refurbish Morupule A Power Station, the duo were attacked in the guesthouse in Palapye’s Extension Two location where they were staying.
On 22 April this year, with overwhelming evidence against him, including being caught with the dead man’s watch as well as the revolver used in the murder, Makati was found guilty of the cold-blooded killing.
The two men initially believed to have accompanied him that fateful night, Kagiso Gaadingwe, 34, and Tshiamelo Ntshese, 45, were declared ‘not-guilty’.
Following his conviction, all that was left was for court to decide whether he deserves to live or die.
Begging not to be sent to the gallows, Makati pointed to his youthful age at the time, as well as the fact that he had been drinking heavily in the lead up to the murder, as reasons to spare his life.
Justice Bengbame Sechele did not agree.
“The accused committed this offence in the cause of robbery, the motivation of which was nothing but greed. The mitigating factors arising for this court’s consideration are for outweighed by aggravating factors,” insisted Judge Sechele, before uttering the sentence that sent chills through the stuffy courtroom.
Although it is now of little consequence considering his unwanted date with the hangman’s noose, Makati, who has spent the last 10 years locked up on remand, received an additional 10 years for robbery, plus seven years for Moonhan’s grievous bodily harm.
