A Windhoek resident accused of killing his domestic partner by stabbing her with a pair of scissors denied guilt on a count of murder in the High Court yesterday.
After pleading not guilty to a charge of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, Rodney Afrikaner (44) told judge Claudia Claasen he would not be giving a plea explanation to the court at the start of his trial.
Afrikaner is accused of killing a woman with whom he was involved in a romantic relationship, Petricia Hochobes (39), in the Hakahana area of Windhoek on 9 February 2019.
The state is alleging that Afrikaner stabbed Hochobes multiple times in her thigh and leg with a pair of scissors, leading to her death due to a loss of blood.
A state witness, Clorette Naris, testified yesterday that Afrikaner directed insulting comments at Hochobes after she intervened when he slapped their daughter at their home during the evening of 9 February 2019.
Naris said Afrikaner also made a threat that he would kill Hochobes while insulting her.
After his verbal outburst, he asked Hochobes for some food, Naris recounted.
She said Afrikaner was given a plate with rice and sausage, but he complained about the food and threw the plate at Hochobes as he started a quarrel with her.
With the quarrel continuing after a lull, Afrikaner slapped Hochobes and then took a pair of scissors from a trunk in the room where they were, Naris said.
Hochobes was breastfeeding her and Afrikaner’s baby son, then seven months old, while sitting on a bed in the room, when Afrikaner stabbed her in the thigh with the scissors, Naris testified.
She said after Hochobes had moved to another bed, where she sat down, Afrikaner approached her.
It appeared to her as if he wanted to look at the first injury in Hochobes’ thigh, but he then stabbed her again, twice, Naris recounted.
She said she did not see exactly in which part of her body Hochobes was stabbed after the first stab, which was aimed at her thigh, but she saw that Hochobes was bleeding heavily.
The trial is continuing.
Afrikaner, who is being held in custody, has elected to stand trial without legal representation.
State advocate Tangeni Iitula is prosecuting.
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