American fires third lawyer in murder case

AMERICAN murder accused Kevan Donnell Townsend has ditched the third lawyer who has been representing him in the case in which he and a compatriot are accused of having murdered a young Namibian in Windhoek at the start of 2011.

Defence lawyer Joshua Kaumbi, who has been representing Townsend since February this year, announced his withdrawal from the case when Townsend and a co-accused, Marcus Kevin Thomas, made another appearance before Judge Christie Liebenberg in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

Kaumbi told the court that Townsend has written a letter to the Directorate of Legal Aid, which instructed him to represent Townsend, to ask that he be given another lawyer. He has accepted Townsend’s wish for his withdrawal, Kaumbi said.

He took the step to ask for another defence lawyer because he did not think Kaumbi was taking his mandate seriously, Townsend told the judge.

Kaumbi took the place of Townsend’s previous legal aid-instructed lawyer, Boris Isaacks, after Townsend had sent Isaacks packing in February. Isaacks informed the court at that time that Townsend was saying he (Isaacks) was not taking Townsend’s alleged inhuman treatment by the prison authorities seriously. Townsend was complaining about being kept in isolation for 23 hours a day, Isaacks said.

The first defence lawyer to represent Townsend, Vetu Uanivi, withdrew in September last year, citing conflicting instructions from his client as the reason for the move.

Townsend (29) and Thomas (30) are accused of having murdered the 25-year-old Andre Heckmair in Windhoek on 7 January 2011.

Heckmair died after he had been shot in the head in a car in a quiet street in Klein Windhoek. The state is alleging that the two accused men planned the killing of Heckmair and travelled from the United States of America to Namibia near the end of December 2010 to carry out their plan.

The two men denied guilt on a count of murder and five other charges on 7 November last year. The prosecution’s second witness in the trial had barely been sworn in as a witness when the defence lawyer then representing Thomas told the judge that Thomas had changed his instructions and wanted to plead guilty to all of the charges he was facing. The lawyer also asked to have Thomas referred for psychiatric observation to determine if he was mentally fit to stand trial.

The trial has been stalled since then. In the meantime, a state psychiatrist involved in the psychiatric observation of Thomas reported to the court at the end of April that Thomas was not fit to stand trial at that stage, because he had problems with his memory and his cognitive performance was impaired.

On a request from the prosecution Judge Liebenberg ordered last month that a different panel of psychiatrists, including a neuropsychiatrist, which is a specialist in the field of disordered brain function, should again examine Thomas’ mental state to determine if he is able to understand court proceedings and thus is fit to continue to stand trial.

A fall that Thomas reportedly suffered during an attempt to escape from Windhoek Correctional Facility on 3 November last year has been cited as the probable reason for a suspected brain injury that affected his mental fitness.

The panel of mental health experts that should examine Thomas has not been appointed yet, the court was informed yesterday.

The two men’s case was postponed to 16 October to await the results of Thomas’ next period of psychiatric observation.

Thomas is currently being represented by defence lawyer Monty Karuaihe. He was not present in court for the appearance of his client yesterday.

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