Justice Chris Gabanagae of the Gaborone High Court last week sentenced murder convict, Unangoni Alton, to death for the murder of his girlfriend, Kefilwe Mogorosi.
Although Alton had tried to evade the noose with claims of drunkenness, bruised ego and self defence, the court found that the excuses were too feeble to mitigate the brutality of the gruesome murder which occurred in Mmankgodi on October 25, 2012.
During trial, Alton told court that he drank 12 quarts of Black Label beer the previous night non-stop and until the commission of the offence the following day early in the morning.
He also said he was belittled with insults by Mogorosi who labelled him a useless individual of no value and that he was always after girls.
Alton further said he was convinced that the deceased was cheating on him and that he had actually found love messages on Mogorosi’s phone, playing a part in forming irrational thinking in his head.
When delivering judgement, Justice Gabanagae said Alton went to Mogorosi’s house in possession of a table knife which is an indication that he clearly went with the sole intention of killing her in view of the manner he stabbed her. He said there were 8 stab wounds on different parts of the deceased’s body with defensive wounds on her hands, demonstrating that she was trying to block Alton’s knife.
Alton’s defence was that the stab wounds were consistent because he was defending himself against Mogorosi who had grabbed his testicles.
The forensic pathologist stated that this was impossible.
He said Mogorosi died a violent death and what the accused had done could be termed as ‘overkilling’
“The wounds inflicted on the deceased and the manner in which she was killed was brutal. The accused repeatedly cut her neck to ensure that she was dead. He left the knife stuck deeply in Mogorosi’s neck then locked the door and jumped over the fence and fled the scene. The deceased was found naked at the scene and she was probably raped before she was killed,” said Gabanagae
Justice Gabanagae noted that the defence counsel submitted in mitigation that at the time of the commission of the offence, the accused was relatively young at the age of 25 years but he found that he was old enough to appreciate that killing another human being was wrong.
“In conclusion, I find that this is a clear case where a death penalty must be imposed. I therefore order that you shall hang by your neck until you are dead. May God have mercy upon your soul,” he ruled.
