One of the men accused of robbing and killing a Windhoek resident in his flat in March 2024 admitted to a police officer that he was present when his alleged victim was overpowered, before items were stolen from his home.
The account Nicodemus Hango gave a police officer, warrant officer Matheus Shifugula, on 9 March 2024, was read out by Shifugula when he testified in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility on Thursday.
In the warning statement of Hango that Shifugula recorded on his arrest, Hango recounted that he went to the flat of Stanley Cloete in the Dorado Valley area of Windhoek after one of his co-accused in a trial taking place before judge Dinnah Usiku, Abast Muya, had suggested to him that they “should go to Dorado to rob a person”.
Hango (23), Muya (28) and another accused, Erastus Gabriel (41), denied guilt on four charges, including a count of murder and two charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, at the start of their trial five weeks ago.
They are accused of robbing and murdering Cloete (36), who was a lecturer employed by the Namibia University of Science and Technology, in his flat in the Dorado Valley area on 2 March 2024.
Cloete is alleged to have died due to suffocation after he had been tied up and gagged.
In his statement, Hango said when he and Muya, to whom he referred as “Alex”, arrived at the flat Alex had said they should go to, they were let in by the person inside, and it appeared Alex knew the place.
Hango said they found a man alone in the flat.
The man went to a room where there was air conditioning and was joined by Alex, before Hango also went to the room, where he lay on the bed next to the man, he said.
Hango said he and the man were touching each other when he grabbed the man by his neck and held him, while Alex took out wires to tie the man up.
He and Alex had the wires with them when they went from the Havana area of Windhoek to the flat, Hango also said.
He continued that Alex took out a knife and demanded the man’s phone password from him, but the man refused to give the password to him.
When they later saw the man was not moving or had been overpowered, they started to take items including a laptop computer, television, clothes and watches from the flat, Hango said.
They left the scene in a car they had taken from a garage at the flat, he also related.
“At the time we left the flat we did not check if the person is alive and I did not hear the person screaming or moving,” Hango said.
“We left him on top of his bed.”
The court has heard that Cloete’s body was found lying next to his bed on the floor of his bedroom.
Hango also said he and Alex left the stolen items at a bar before they parked the car with which they had left the flat in the Havana area.
He further said he and Alex found buyers for the stolen television, laptop and cellphone before they were arrested.
The trial is continuing.
Hango and Muya are being held in custody, while Gabriel has been released on bail.
