Judges reject bail appeal of ‘baboon shooting’ suspect

OUTJO area farmer Pieter Hendrick Spangenberg, who faces a murder charge over shooting a man Spangenberg claims he mistook for a baboon, has failed with an appeal to the High Court to be released on bail.

Spangenberg (39) has been in Police custody for more than two months. He is now set to face an even longer period in a Police cell after Judge Nic Hannah and Acting Judge John Manyarara on Thursday dismissed Spangenberg’s appeal against an Outjo Magistrate’s Court ruling in which he was denied bail.The major factor that persuaded the two Judges to turn down Spangenberg’s appeal was the possibility that he might abscond in order to avoid standing trial.He is accused of killing a suspected trespasser on the farm Zhukov East, about 70 km north-east of Outjo, on April 24.Spangenberg and a co-accused, Christiaan Johannes Ayres (39), are also charged with defeating the ends of justice, based on the allegation that they had moved the body of Evelino Munenge Jacob and dumped it some 55 km away next to the Tsumeb-Otavi main road.Judge Hannah noted that if Spangenberg was convicted of murder, it would be inevitable that he would receive a prison sentence, and in all probability a lengthy one.The Judge remarked that “common sense dictates that a person charged with an offence which attracts a lengthy term of imprisonment is more likely to abscond than a person charged with an offence which attracts a small fine”.According to the evidence heard in the Outjo Magistrate’s Court, Judge Hannah continued, Spangenberg had given two contradictory accounts of the shooting.Spangenberg told the court that he and Ayres were sitting on a raised platform, used for staking out game for hunting, at about 18h00 on April 24 when they spotted an unknown person walking some distance away in the veld.Spangenberg claimed he took Ayres’s hunting rifle to take a better look at the apparent trespasser through the rifle’s telescope, while he also sent Ayres to approach the man to find out who he was and what he was doing there.According to Spangenberg he was putting down the rifle again when an unintended shot went off.When he and Ayres got to the man, they were shocked to find that he was dead.In a panic they decided to move the body elsewhere, they told the Outjo court.However, the investigating officer told the court that Spangenberg had told him that he had thought he saw a baboon moving in the grass, and that he shot it because baboons had been vandalising water pumps on the farm.Only after the shot had been fired and they found Munenge dead in the grass did he realise that he had shot at a human being, the officer claimed he was told by Spangenberg.The moving of the body, “was, in my opinion, more consistent with guilt rather than innocence”, Judge Hannah commented.”Matters such as these lead me to the conclusion that the appellant is, in all probability, very worried about the outcome of the criminal proceedings.There is a strong incentive for him to abscond and avoid standing trial.”Spangenberg had “displayed total irresponsibility by dumping the body of the deceased by the roadside,” the Judge stated.He added:”Given all the circumstances, there is, in my view, a real likelihood that he may act equally irresponsibly with regard to any condition of bail.”Spangenberg has been represented by Rudi Cohrssen during the bail hearing and appeal.Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small represented the State in the appeal hearing.Spangenberg and Ayres, who has been released on N$5 000 bail, are scheduled to appear in court at Outjo again on August 18.He is now set to face an even longer period in a Police cell after Judge Nic Hannah and Acting Judge John Manyarara on Thursday dismissed Spangenberg’s appeal against an Outjo Magistrate’s Court ruling in which he was denied bail.The major factor that persuaded the two Judges to turn down Spangenberg’s appeal was the possibility that he might abscond in order to avoid standing trial.He is accused of killing a suspected trespasser on the farm Zhukov East, about 70 km north-east of Outjo, on April 24.Spangenberg and a co-accused, Christiaan Johannes Ayres (39), are also charged with defeating the ends of justice, based on the allegation that they had moved the body of Evelino Munenge Jacob and dumped it some 55 km away next to the Tsumeb-Otavi main road.Judge Hannah noted that if Spangenberg was convicted of murder, it would be inevitable that he would receive a prison sentence, and in all probability a lengthy one.The Judge remarked that “common sense dictates that a person charged with an offence which attracts a lengthy term of imprisonment is more likely to abscond than a person charged with an offence which attracts a small fine”.According to the evidence heard in the Outjo Magistrate’s Court, Judge Hannah continued, Spangenberg had given two contradictory accounts of the shooting.Spangenberg told the court that he and Ayres were sitting on a raised platform, used for staking out game for hunting, at about 18h00 on April 24 when they spotted an unknown person walking some distance away in the veld.Spangenberg claimed he took Ayres’s hunting rifle to take a better look at the apparent trespasser through the rifle’s telescope, while he also sent Ayres to approach the man to find out who he was and what he was doing there.According to Spangenberg he was putting down the rifle again when an unintended shot went off.When he and Ayres got to the man, they were shocked to find that he was dead.In a panic they decided to move the body elsewhere, they told the Outjo court.However, the investigating officer told the court that Spangenberg had told him that he had thought he saw a baboon moving in the grass, and that he shot it because baboons had been vandalising water pumps on the farm.Only after the shot had been fired and they found Munenge dead in the grass did he realise that he had shot at a human being, the officer claimed he was told by Spangenberg.The moving of the body, “was, in my opinion, more consistent with guilt rather than innocence”, Judge Hannah commented.”Matters such as these lead me to the conclusion that the appellant is, in all probability, very worried about the outcome of the criminal proceedings.There is a strong incentive for him to abscond and avoid standing trial.”Spangenberg had “displayed total irresponsibility by dumping the body of the deceased by the roadside,” the Judge stated.He added:”Given all the circumstances, there is, in my view, a real likelihood that he may act equally irresponsibly with regard to any condition of bail.”Spangenberg has been represented by Rudi Cohrssen during the bail hearing and appeal.Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small represented the State in the appeal hearing.Spangenberg and Ayres, who has been released on N$5 000 bail, are scheduled to appear in court at Outjo again on August 18.