CONVICTED MURDERER FACES POSSIBLE DEATH SENTENCE
A jealous ex-boyfriend who was recently convicted of his love rival’s murder is awaiting sentencing with the possibility of being sentenced to death hanging over his head.
The court still has to determine whether there were extenuating circumstances or was it in cold blood that Wazwagwa Pelo shot his love rival, Henry Keofitlhile at his former girlfriend’s home 12 years ago.
Facts of the matter are that on the fateful day, Pelo had accessed his ex girlfriend house and waited for her to arrive with her new boyfriend.
Giving evidence against her baby daddy, the ex girlfriend told the court that she had broken up with Pelo but he would not accept the breakup.
She further testified that on the night of the murder, her new boyfriend was going to spend the night with her.
When they arrived at her house she opened the gate whilst he parked the car. She went inside the house first where she saw Pelo hiding behind the door.
He said, “I am waiting for the one outside so that I can finish with you.”
“She tried to wrestle the gun out of his hands as she screamed for help,” reads court record.
The deceased at this point rushed inside the house to find out what was happening. He too wrestled for the gun, which had fallen down during the scuffle, giving the girlfriend a chance to flee.
As she was running she heard a gun go off and she continued to run for her dear life.
Pelo’s recollection of the night was however in total contradiction with his ex girlfriend’s.
Choosing not to call any witnesses during trial, Pelo told the court that he left Gaborone to his home village in Mmashoro.
When he arrived there he decided to spend a night at his girlfriend’s home and he took along with him a shotgun and bullets because he wanted to chase away monkeys at the field and to hunt for guinea fowls.
He further told the court that when he got to his girlfriend’s house after knocking on the door, he let himself in and proceeded to the bedroom to wait for her.
According to him, his girlfriend soon after came into the bedroom and after realizing that he had a gun with him and without asking him what the gun was for started to wrestled it from him.
He said after the scuffle he saw a man standing in front of him also wrestling for the gun with him. During the scuffle the gun went off and the man fell to the ground.
Pelo told the court that the gun going off shocked him because he did not remember loading it
According to Pelo he then phoned his grandmother to tell her that he had accidentally shot someone and he wanted to hand himself to his uncle, the station commander at Shoshong Police, Wazha Zambezi.
It is on court record that the concerned uncle called the nephew and he confessed to his uncle that he had killed a man who was in a love affair with his girlfriend and that he wanted to kill himself.
However the uncle convinced him not to kill himself but rather to hand himself to the police.
Giving out judgment recently, the Lobatse High Court judge Modiri Letsididi ruled that Pelo’s version of events was probably not true.
His judgment reads, “In the course of giving evidence, the accused person was challenged at some length on a number of things which answers he gave, in my view fell way short of what a reasonable prudent man should and ought to have foreseen that harm was a probable outcome if he did not guard against them.”
For instance the judge believed that Pelo should have checked if the gun was loaded since he admitted that other family members also handled the gun sometimes.
“Thirdly I reject as false evidence by the accused person that as PW2 (ex girlfriend) ran away there was a struggle for the gun with the deceased. PW 2 stated that during the struggle for the gun, between her and the accused person, the deceased shone a torch light at them. The same torch was found in the deceased hands as he lay face down and dead as depicted at page 7 of the admitted photo album,” the judgment reads.
In the end the judge ruled that the state had proved its case beyond reasonable doub and Pelo was convicted of murder.
Sentencing has been set for March 25.
