The Namibian
Judgement date set in hunter’s murder trial
THE five men who have been on trial in the High Court for the past month in connection with the murder of a professional hunter during an alleged poaching excursion in the Outjo area near the end of 2006 are set to get an idea of their fate at the start of December.
The last testimony in the trial of the five men was given before Judge Louis Muller on Thursday last week. State prosecutor Lourens Campher and defence lawyers Boris Isaacks and Lucia Hamutenya now have to file written arguments to be considered by Judge Muller, who has set December 1 as the date when he will be delivering his judgement in the trial.
The trial of Willem Peter (38), Gert Nuxabeb (25), his brother, Jafet Nuxabeb (21), John Khamuxab (20) and Johannes Heiki (67) started on September 17 when all five of them pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, stock theft, theft of a motor vehicle, the theft of a hunting rifle, ammunition and compact discs, defeating the course of justice, the altering, mutilating or cancelling of a registered livestock brand, and possession of a firearm and ammunition without a licence.
The person who was set to be the first accused in the trial, Immanuel Isako, was not in court for the start of the trial or thereafter. Isako (35) died in Police custody on May 21 this year.
The allegations against the five accused and Isako are that all of them, except for Heiki, were involved in the poaching of a heifer on a farm next to the main road between Outjo and Kamanjab during the night of December 6 to 7 2006.
The animal was shot by Isako, who was accompanied by Peter, the Nuxabeb brothers and Khamuxab when he went on the poaching trip that evening, the court heard during the trial.
The shot heifer had already been loaded onto the back of Isako’s bakkie when professional hunter Daniel van Vuuren arrived at the scene.
Van Vuuren confronted Isako about the animal, the court was told by two prosecution witnesses who were at the scene and also by the four charged men who were with Isako. After an exchange of words between Van Vuuren and Isako, Van Vuuren turned and was walking back to his bakkie when Isako fired a shot at him with the rifle with which he had earlier shot the heifer.
Van Vuuren was shot through his pelvis.
Isako then readied the gun to fire another shot, aiming the rifle at Van Vuuren’s head – but then the gun failed to go off, the Judge was told.
One of the eyewitnesses at the scene told the court that Isako, Jafet Nuxabeb and Khamuxab carried the wounded Van Vuuren off the road. Nuxabeb and Khamuxab denied this. The witness also claimed that he heard – but did not see – Van Vuuren being beaten where he had been taken into the grass next to the road.
Van Vuuren (43) was found dead at that spot the next morning.
In the meantime, Isako and company had transported the stolen heifer to the nearby farm where Isako was farming and Heiki was also living. There, Isako’s cattle brand was put on the skin of the slaughtered heifer and Heiki helped Isako to hide the skin, a rifle, ammunition and other items that Isako stole from Van Vuuren’s vehicle, it is alleged.
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The court heard that two tubs of car exhaust repair putty that were found at the scene were crucial in putting the Police on the trail of Isako and his co-accused.
When Police officers investigating the case made enquiries at an Outjo garage about the exhaust putty, they were told that Isako and Peter had been at the garage on
The court also heard that the .308 rifle that Isako was accused of having used to kill Van Vuuren is registered in the name of Richardt Thomson (34), an Outjo resident who is awaiting his trial in the High Court on charges of robbing and murdering an 81-year-old man at
Thomson refused to give a statement to the Police on his firearm, Judge Muller heard.
Heiki is the only one of the remaining five accused to be free on bail.
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