The prosecutor general has decided that a Windhoek resident accused of murdering a staff member of the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) in April last year should stand trial in the Windhoek High Court.
Murder accused Wentzel Maasdorp (41) was informed of this when he made his latest appearance in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
Maasdorp was informed that the prosecutor general has decided to arraign him in the Windhoek High Court on eight criminal charges.
The charges consist of a count of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, two charges of fraud, alternatively theft, and counts of defeating or obstructing the course of justice, housebreaking with intent to steal and theft, and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Maasdorp was arrested in Windhoek at the end of April last year in connection with a fatal incident that took place at the flat of Nust employee Delia Weimers-Maasdorp (40) in Windhoek during the evening of 25 April last year.
Weimers-Maasdorp was found dead in her flat in the Klein Windhoek area on 28 April last year.
Her body was found wrapped in a blanket, which had rope tied around it.
During a bail hearing in January this year, Maasdorp testified that he and Weimers-Maasdorp, with whom he had been involved in a romantic relationship, had an argument at her flat during the evening of 25 April last year, and that he experienced “a trance or blackout” after she had thrown the contents of a glass of vodka in his face and slapped him.
When he came to his senses, he found Weimers-Maasdorp lying on the floor, he said.
Maasdorp added that he did not know if she had fainted and he did not check her pulse before he left the scene in a state of shock.
In a statement he made to a magistrate in Windhoek after his arrest, though, Maasdorp said there was a fight between him and Weimers-Maasdorp, and that she “slapped me a few times and that was when I lost my cool and started strangling her”.
He also stated: “It was never my intention to cause her any harm, but when I came to my senses it was too late.”
Maasdorp was denied bail at the end of his bail hearing.
He denied guilt on charges of murder, theft of a motor vehicle and theft of a television and cellphone during an appearance in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on 2 July this year.
He has also been charged with housebreaking and theft and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm in connection with an incident that took place in the DRC area of Swakopmund in January 2023.
Maasdorp has to make a first pretrial appearance in the Windhoek High Court on 21 January.
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