A former security guard accused of robbing and murdering a colleague while transporting cash was ordered to be taken out of a courtroom in the Windhoek High Court yesterday after disrupting proceedings in his trial.
Judge Eileen Rakow directed police officers to remove Teodor Shipanga from the courtroom in which his trial was due to start after Shipanga repeatedly and loudly claimed he was not charged, that he did not have a case with the Namibian Police, and that his rights were being violated.
Shipanga (49) also protested loudly when the judge asked state advocate Anna Amukugo to put the charges he is facing so that he could give his pleas.
“I am not charged. No charges,” he said.
Shipanga also claimed: “The prosecutor general indicted me falsely.”
After Rakow warned him she would order that he be removed from the courtroom if he disrupted proceedings and that his trial could continue in his absence, Shipanga responded: “You can do that.”
He also remarked to the judge: “You are too partial. I will never tolerate your trial.” Rakow ordered that he be removed from the courtroom after Shipanga said: “I am not going to allow the state to proceed with those false charges.”
With Shipanga removed from the courtroom, Amukugo proceeded to read out the charges he is facing, and Rakow recorded pleas of not guilty on his behalf in his absence.
The state is alleging that Shipanga murdered a fellow security company employee, Shain van Wyk (22), between Otjiwarongo and Okahandja on 11 November 2011 by shooting him in the head with a shotgun.
Van Wyk was killed while he and Shipanga were returning to Windhoek with money they had collected at banks at Tsumeb, Otjiwarongo and other places in northern Namibia.
Van Wyk’s body was left in a culvert under the B1 road between Otjiwarongo and Okahandja.
The state is also alleging that Shipanga robbed Van Wyk by stealing an amount of at least N$2.49 million and the cash-in-transit vehicle in which they were travelling from him.
Shipanga is alleged to have returned to Windhoek with the vehicle, which was left in the city’s Ombili area.
It is also alleged that Shipanga removed money from the vehicle, set it on fire and left his security company uniform at the scene where the vehicle was abandoned.
About N$1.2 million that was part of the money stolen from the cash-in-transit vehicle was found hidden at the home of siblings of Shipanga in the Havana area of Windhoek on 13 November 2011, the state is alleging as well.
It is further alleged that Shipanga went to Wanaheda Police Station in Windhoek during the early hours of 12 November 2011 and reported he had been robbed by two unknown men in Windhoek’s Brakwater area.
Shipanga refused to plead to the charges he is facing when his trial first started before judge Claudia Claasen in July 2024. The judge recorded pleas of not guilty to the charges on his behalf.
Claasen decided to step down from the trial in November last year, after Shipanga had been ordered to undergo a period of psychiatric evaluation.
Claasen decided to recuse herself from his trial after a psychiatrist who completed a report on his mental state included extracts from witness statements that were not yet part of the evidence before the court in the report to the court. The case was assigned to Rakow after Claasen’s recusal.
Following his arrest in November 2011, Shipanga made several appearances in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura until his case was struck off the court roll in May 2014, after a magistrate refused to grant a further postponement to await a decision of the prosecutor general in the matter.
Shipanga appeared in court again in July 2022, after the charges against him were reinstated.
He is being held in custody.
