Farmers’ killer gets 57-year jail term

ANDREAS Haingura, the former farmworker convicted of killing his two employers – a father and his son – at a farm near Maltahoehe, was sentenced to an effective prison term of 57 years yesterday.

The jail term that acting Judge John Manyarara imposed on Haingura (36) in the High Court in Windhoek, is the longest period of imprisonment to have been imposed in that court since October last year, when former Policeman Stephanus Skeyer received two life prison terms for a double murder during a shooting rampage in Windhoek in June 2000. Sentenced with Haingura yesterday was a co-accused, Cornelius Hamunyela (26), who received a combined seven-year jail term.While he was acquitted of the murders, Hamunyela was convicted of having received stolen property, knowing it to be stolen, and of having stolen an unknown quantity of diesel from a Roads Contractor Company depot at Nkurenkuru in the Kavango Region in the days after the double slaying.The murders took place at the farm Sandpforte, about 15 kilometres north-east of Maltahoehe, on August 29 2001, when Haingura shot dead farmer Adrian Jacobus (‘At’) Liebenberg (69) and his son, Jacobus Coenraad (‘Koos’) Liebenberg (40).He left their bodies, which he had covered with blankets, lying in the yard of their farmhouse until they were discovered by a neighbour two days later.For each murder, Acting Judge Manyarara sentenced Haingura to thirty years imprisonment.Fifteen years of the sentence on the second murder count was ordered to run together with the 30-year term on the other charge.The acting Judge once again told Haingura yesterday that he was rejecting the latter’s claim that he had acted in his own defence when he shot the farmers.He had claimed that he was trying to defend himself from an assault by the Liebenbergs.In his verdict on June 16, acting Judge Manyarara however rejected those claims and noted that the evidence showed that Haingura had told several lies in respect of the shootings.As a result, he convicted Haingura on two counts of murder with the direct intention to kill, and found that robbery had been the motive for the murders.”In a callous murder such as the ones under consideration, an exemplary sentence is called for in order not only to reflect the shock and indignation of interested persons and of the community at large, but also to serve the deterrent as well as just retribution objectives of punishment,” acting Judge Manyarara told Haingura.He was quoting the words of Judge President Peter Shivute when he imposed a sentence in another double murder case in the High Court last year.Deterrence and retribution had to be emphasised in Haingura’s case in order to emphasise the wickedness of the crimes he had committed, the acting Judge added.Haingura stole a vehicle and loaded it with a wide range of household items from the Liebenbergs’ house after he had killed them.For this robbery, he received a ten-year jail term.For the theft of the diesel, he was given a further two years in prison.Life prison terms aside, Haingura yesterday became the recipient of the fifth-longest jail term yet to have been imposed by the High Court.His sentence is surpassed only by the sentences that have been imposed on two killers of an elderly Luderitz couple, who were given an effective jail term of 75 years each in June 2001, an effective term of 69 years that was imposed on the murderer of a Gobabis area family of four in November 2001 and 67-year and 64-year sentences that were imposed in February 2002 on the members of a gang of robbers convicted of the murder of an elderly farming couple in the Okahandja district.Sentenced with Haingura yesterday was a co-accused, Cornelius Hamunyela (26), who received a combined seven-year jail term.While he was acquitted of the murders, Hamunyela was convicted of having received stolen property, knowing it to be stolen, and of having stolen an unknown quantity of diesel from a Roads Contractor Company depot at Nkurenkuru in the Kavango Region in the days after the double slaying.The murders took place at the farm Sandpforte, about 15 kilometres north-east of Maltahoehe, on August 29 2001, when Haingura shot dead farmer Adrian Jacobus (‘At’) Liebenberg (69) and his son, Jacobus Coenraad (‘Koos’) Liebenberg (40).He left their bodies, which he had covered with blankets, lying in the yard of their farmhouse until they were discovered by a neighbour two days later.For each murder, Acting Judge Manyarara sentenced Haingura to thirty years imprisonment.Fifteen years of the sentence on the second murder count was ordered to run together with the 30-year term on the other charge.The acting Judge once again told Haingura yesterday that he was rejecting the latter’s claim that he had acted in his own defence when he shot the farmers.He had claimed that he was trying to defend himself from an assault by the Liebenbergs.In his verdict on June 16, acting Judge Manyarara however rejected those claims and noted that the evidence showed that Haingura had told several lies in respect of the shootings.As a result, he convicted Haingura on two counts of murder with the direct intention to kill, and found that robbery had been the motive for the murders.”In a callous murder such as the ones under consideration, an exemplary sentence is called for in order not only to reflect the shock and indignation of interested persons and of the community at large, but also to serve the deterrent as well as just retribution objectives of punishment,” acting Judge Manyarara told Haingura.He was quoting the words of Judge President Peter Shivute when he imposed a sentence in another double murder case in the High Court last year.Deterrence and retribution had to be emphasised in Haingura’s case in order to emphasise the wickedness of the crimes he had committed, the acting Judge added.Haingura stole a vehicle and loaded it with a wide range of household items from the Liebenbergs’ house after he had killed them.For this robbery, he received a ten-year jail term.For the theft of the diesel, he was given a further two years in prison.Life prison terms aside, Haingura yesterday became the recipient of the fifth-longest jail term yet to have been imposed by the High Court.His sentence is surpassed only by the sentences that have been imposed on two killers of an elderly Luderitz couple, who were given an effective jail term of 75 years each in June 2001, an effective term of 69 years that was imposed on the murderer of a Gobabis area family of four in November 2001 and 67-year and 64-year sentences that were imposed in February 2002 on the members of a gang of robbers convicted of the murder of an elderly farming couple in the Okahandja district.