27-year jail terms for City cop’s murder

THE two young men convicted of murdering a member of the Windhoek City Police in his home in early 2005 were each sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment yesterday.

The only thing that saved Steven Goagoseb and Michael Williams from being sent to jail for much longer was their relative youthfulness at the time of the crimes they were convicted of, were Judge Kato van Niekerk’s parting words to the two men after she had sentenced them in the High Court in Windhoek.She sentenced Goagoseb (25) and Williams (24) to 22 years’ imprisonment for murder, and to a ten-year prison term, of which half was ordered to be served concurrently with the sentence on the murder charge, on a count of robbery with aggravating circumstances.Goagoseb and Williams were 20 and 18 and a half years old respectively at the time that Windhoek City Police officer Anton Matesu was robbed and killed in his home in Windhoek’s Acacia residential area in Dorado Park during the night of January 22 to 23 2005.Matesu (40) was found dead in his locked bedroom early in the evening of January 23 2005. He was found tied up, with his hands bound behind his back and his feet tied at the ankles, and had been gagged with a belt. The gagging was what killed him, as the belt was put so tightly through his mouth that he suffocated.’To die in this way, struggling for air, must be particularly frightening,’ Judge Van Niekerk commented with the sentencing.She said it was ‘particularly cruel’ to tie someone up the way Matesu had been, while knowing he would suffocate and would not be able to help himself.Judge Van Niekerk said Goagoseb and Williams were fortunate that some facts were present in their case: that they are both first-time offenders, were young at the time of the crimes, that the killing and robbery were not premeditated, and that they have been in custody for some five and a half years before their trial was finalised.When Matesu was found dead, it was also discovered that numerous items were missing from his house. These included a computer, two television sets and kitchen equipment.Within a few hours after the incident the two accused men were already out on the streets, selling the computer stolen from Matesu, Judge Van Niekerk noted during the sentencing.During the trial the court heard that Goagoseb and Williams encountered Matesu and friends of his at a club in Khomasdal on the evening of January 22 2005. Matesu had too much to drink that evening, and he later remained in the company of Goagoseb and Williams.They were seen arriving at Matesu’s house in the early morning hours of the next day, the court heard.The next morning, Williams’s girlfriend woke up to find the items that had been taken from Matesu’s house stored at the house where Williams was living, the court also heard. She testified that when she visited Williams in Police custody after his and Goagoseb’s arrest, Williams told her that he and Goagoseb had been at Matesu’s house. He also told her that at some stage he and Matesu fell asleep on a bed, and that when he later woke up he found Goagoseb pressing on Matesu’s throat until he lost consciousness. Williams further told her that Goagoseb had tied Matesu’s hands and feet before they loaded the goods taken from his house onto his bakkie and left the scene, the court heard.Goagoseb and Williams both showed no remorse during their trial. Instead ‘they had the gall to cast grave aspersions’ on Matesu’s widow and a friend, claiming that Mrs Matesu had sent them to collect goods from Matesu’s house on her behalf, Judge Van Niekerk remarked.The two men’s trial started on June 4 last year, when both of them pleaded not guilty to counts of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances. They were convicted on both charges four weeks ago.State advocate Belinda Wantenaar prosecuted. Goagoseb was represented by defence lawyer Lucia Hamutenya, while Bradley Basson defended Williams.