Kleine Kuppe murder suspects granted bail

THE two men facing triple murder counts and other charges in connection with the execution-style killing of three people at a house in Windhoek’s Kleine Kuppe area in early 2004 were each granted bail of N$4 000 in the High Court in Windhoek on Friday.

Four days after their trial failed to start in the High Court and a new starting date of June 14 2010 was set, triple murder suspects Paulus Aaron Willibard (29) and Joseph Hangome (34) heard on Friday that they had succeeded with an application to be granted bail while the charges against them remain pending.In a ruling given on Friday, Judge Nate Ndauendapo granted Willibard and Hangome bail of N$4 000 each. If they manage to pay the bail and are released from custody, they have to report twice a day at the Wanaheda Police Station, and they must also report to Police officer Zachariah Amakali if they want to leave the Windhoek district, Judge Ndauendapo ordered.Eight criminal charges are pending against Willibard and Hangome in the High Court. These are three counts of murder, a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances, two counts of illegal possession of a 7,65 mm calibre pistol and a .38 Special revolver, and two charges of illegal possession of ammunition.All of the charges emanate from the murder of Windhoek residents Mario de Sousa (46), his wife, Magda de Sousa (43), and Tiaan Du Plessis (‘Koos’) Stoop (40) at the De Sousa couple’s home in Kleine Kuppe on the evening of February 27 2004.The De Sousas, Stoop and the only person to survive the incident, Anja Britz, were socialising at the home of the De Sousas when two intruders allegedly gained entrance to the premises through a pre-cast boundary wall of which they had removed a section.The intruders murdered the De Sousa couple and Stoop by shooting Mario and Magda de Sousa in the head and shooting Stoop in the neck. They then fled from the scene with two cellphones and a handbag that belonged to Mrs De Sousa.The Police recovered the alleged murder weapons a week later, on March 6 2004, after a shootout in which a suspect in the case, Hosea Johannes, was killed in his house in Katutura. The guns that were allegedly used in the triple murder were found at Johannes’s house, the Police are claiming.Willibard and Hangome launched a bail application before Judge Ndauendapo on Wednesday last week.Hangome has been in custody since about mid-March 2004. Despite being granted bail of N$10 000 in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in February 2007, and this bail amount being reduced to N$7 000 in June 2007, Hangome until last week did not manage to pay the N$7 000 that would have secured his release.Willibard was charged with Hangome until the charges against him were withdrawn in September 2007, when he was also released from custody.By July last year, though, the Prosecutor General again decided to charge Willibard, and he was rearrested and kept in custody since then.Willibard told Judge Ndauendapo last week that as he saw it he was only charged because of a cellphone that Hosea had given to him to sell on Hosea’s behalf.Warrant Officer Zachariah Amakali, who is the Police officer at this stage responsible for the case, told the Judge that on March 1 2004 Police investigators traced a woman who informed the Police that she had bought a cellphone from Willibard on the afternoon of the day after the murders.When Willibard was interrogated thereafter, he told the Police that he had received the cellphone from Hosea, Amakali said.He also told the Judge that Willibard informed the Police that he, Hangome and Hosea had gone to a house in Kleine Kuppe where he was left behind in a riverbed while Hosea and Hangome went onto the premises. Willibard told the Police that he heard gunshots coming from the premises and that he then saw Hosea and Hangome coming from the house with firearms in their hands, Amakali said.Amakali added that on March 2 2004 the Police recovered a second cellphone that is claimed to have been stolen from the De Sousas’ house. This phone was found with a Congolese man, who told the Police he had bought it from an Angolan man, while the Angolan in turn told the Police he had bought the phone from Hangome, Amakali related as he set out the evidence on which the prosecution’s case against the two suspects is based.Amakali also testified that ballistics tests showed that the guns found with Hosea matched spent cartridges and bullets that were recovered at the murder scene.Both Hangome and Willibard are denying all the charges against them. During the hearing of the bail application the court was also told that Willibard would be denying the statement he is alleged to have made to the Police. This would mean that the prosecution would not be able to use the statement as incriminating evidence against Hangome.Willibard was represented by defence lawyer Bradley Basson, while Winnie Christians appeared for Hangome and State advocate Belinda Wantenaar represented the prosecution during the bail hearing.