Driver puts accused at murder scene

THE three people accused of robbing and murdering an elderly Windhoek resident, Koos Stoop, three years ago were all in the vicinity of Stoop’s flat on the evening he was killed, according to testimony heard in the High Court in Windhoek this week.

A taxi driver, Nahason Kaahangoro, testified before Judge Alfred Siboleka that he transported two of the accused, George Tjikuao Tjiueza Katjingisiua and Erwin Kasorere Tjiueza Katjingisiua, to Windhoek’s Cimbebasia area on the evening of August 28 2009, which was the evening that Stoop was killed.Kaahangoro told the judge that Kasorere Katjingisiua had instructed him to follow a car in which the two men’s co-accused, Nelsiene Utiapatie Kauaria, was a passenger, from Katutura until that car reached its destination in Cimbebasia.According to Kaahangoro he later left the two men in that area, after he had seen Kauaria meeting Tjikuao Katjingisiua in the street where he had been instructed to stop his taxi.Kaahangoro was the second witness to testify in the trial of the three accused, which started on Monday.Kauaria (28), Tjikuao Katjingisiua (31), and his brother, Kasorere Katjingisiua (29), all pleaded not guilty to four charges: a count of murder, a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances, a charge of attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances, and a count of conspiracy to commit robbery.They are accused of conspiring to rob Stoop on August 28 2009.That evening, it is alleged, they attacked the 78-year-old Stoop at his flat at the back of a house on Shilunga Street in Cimbebasia.Stoop was allegedly stabbed and assaulted, and was then left gagged and tied up in his bathroom. He died due to suffocation and injuries caused by the stabbing, the prosecution is charging.It is also alleged that the accused tried to steal Stoop’s car, and managed to steal a television set, a car radio, a cellphone and a hair clipper from Stoop’s flat.Kauaria’s defence lawyer, Louis Karsten, told Kaahangoro during his cross-examination on Tuesday that Kauaria claims to have been involved in a relationship with Stoop.Karsten said his instructions from Kauaria were that while she was at Stoop’s flat on the evening of the incident he went outside to check on his dogs, which were barking.When he returned to the flat the Katjingisiua brothers were with him, and they were demanding money from him, Karsten continued to reveal Kauaria’s instructions to him.Karsten said she then left the flat to try to withdraw money somewhere for the two men.Kaahangoro said he knew nothing about those events as related by Kauaria.He testified that after Kasorere Katjingisiua had stopped his taxi in Katutura, he was asked to pick Kauaria and Tjikuao Katjingisiua up at a bar. He then drove with them to a shop, where Kauaria disembarked and got into a red Mazda, which was driven by a white man.That was the car that he was asked to follow up to Cimbebasia, he said.Kasorere Katjingisiua’s defence lawyer, Monty Karuaihe, told Kaahangoro yesterday that according to his client he had told Kaahangoro that he needed transport to help Kauaria remove her possessions from her boyfriend’s home. Karuaihe added that his instructions were that Katjingisiua had told Kaahangoro that Kauaria needed to collect her belongings because she and her boyfriend had had an argument, and that she had then been kicked out of his house.’That is not true,’ was Kaahangoro’s response to Karuaihe’s instructions.The trial is continuing.Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef is representing the State. Tjikuao Katjingisiua is being represented by Willem Visser.