Murder trial forensic evidence under attack

THE exhumation of the remains of suspected murder victim Elmar Kotze two years ago might have been in vain.

Before the part of his skull that was pierced by a bullet that ended his life at the age of 27 was sent away for forensic analysis in South Africa, it appears to have been scrubbed, removing remaining tissue that might have yielded vital clues that could have helped answer the lingering question whether he had been murdered, or had shot himself, either accidentally or in a suicide. This was indicated in testimony that Judge Sylvester Mainga heard in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday, on the second day of the trial of Dewald Ludeke, the friend and colleague of Kotze who is facing a charge of murder over Kotze’s death.Ludeke (29) on Monday pleaded not guilty to all three charges he is facing: the main charge of murder and two alternative counts of failing to safeguard a firearm in his possession and handling a firearm while under the influence of alcohol.In a short written plea explanation, he informed the court that he and Kotze were “good friends and colleagues”, and that they were enjoying some drinks and each other’s company in his flat at Grootfontein on the evening of October 1 2002.”At a stage in the early hours of the morning the accused went to visit the toilet,” Ludeke relates in the statement.”When the accused was leaving the toilet he heard a gunshot.Upon his return to the lounge he found the deceased with a gunshot wound in the head which may have been either accidentally or intentionally self-inflicted.”Ludeke was arrested and charged with murder five days after the shooting, in part because the Police’s suspicions were raised by the unusual position of the gunshot wound to Ludeke’s head and the claimed absence of gunpowder residue either on his hands or around the wound.At that stage, an initial autopsy had been carried out on Kotze’s remains at Grootfontein, whereafter his body was transported to Windhoek for further examination.In August the next year, ten months after he had been buried at Grootfontein, his remains were exhumed, and part of his skull was removed to be sent to South Africa for further forensic analysis.That part of the skull, bearing a bullet hole, surfaced in court yesterday afternoon.Holding it in his hands, the commander of the ballistics unit of the South African Police Service’s Forensic Science Laboratory in the Western Cape, Senior Superintendent Willem Visser, showed the piece of skull to Judge Mainga to demonstrate to him that in his opinion the shot that struck Kotze’s head had come from an angle to the left and from a point higher than his face.The fatal shot struck Kotze’s head slightly above his hairline, on the right-hand side top of his head.Crime-scene photographs show that Kotze was sitting on a couch in the lounge of Ludeke’s flat, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles in what appeared to be a relaxed pose, when he was shot.His head was turned to the right, and rested against the back of the couch.Further to his right stood a lounge chair, and to the right of that was a door.In his opinion, the fatal shot had been fired from that doorway, William Nambahu, Chief Forensic Scientist of Namibia’s National Forensic Science Institute, told the court when he testified on Monday and yesterday.Nambahu had compiled a report in which he stated that his findings – after examining Kotze’s body at the Police Mortuary in Windhoek on October 9 2002 and visiting the scene eight days later – were that the shot was fired from more than a metre away, that Kotze did not shoot himself, and that the shot was fired from that doorway next to the lounge chair.Judging from the trajectory of the shot that could be deduced from the nature of the bullet hole in the skull, this scenario would mean, however, that Kotze’s head would have been turned to almost face the wall when he was shot, Visser agreed with Ludeke’s defence counsel, Rudi Cohrssen, yesterday.Cohrssen also whittled away at Nambahu’s findings while Nambahu himself was in the witness box, until the scientist agreed that the findings in his report were just his opinions, and that he could not rule out the possibility that the shooting had taken place in some other way.One of these ways, according to Cohrssen, was that Kotze might have been handling Ludeke’s 9 mm pistol on his lap while looking down at it when a shot went off.In such a scenario, the bullet might have struck him at such an angle and at that spot on the top of his head, Cohrssen stated to Nambahu.The scientist agreed that was possible.Earlier, he had told the court that in the more than ten years that he had worked as a forensic scientist, he had never seen anyone shooting himself in the way that Kotze was, with an entrance wound in the top of his head, above his hairline.He also testified that he did not see any signs of gunpowder burns or soot around the wound or in the hair around the wound, which are signs that he would have expected if Kotze had shot himself while holding the gun against or close to his head.Then again, Cohrssen also got Nambahu to concede that he did not do microscopic observation or chemical testing to confirm whether there were signs of gunshot propellant too small to be observed by the naked eye.But according to a colleague of Visser, Senior Superintendent Jaco Westraat, it is indeed possible to test bloody hair to determine whether a shot had been fired from close range or not.Westraat heads the Western Cape Forensic Science Laboratory’s chemistry unit.He received the piece of Kotze’s skull in October 2003 with a request to establish whether it contained any traces of gunpowder, he told the court yesterday.He could not find anything, he testified.The piece of skull had, however, been cleaned very thoroughly, and that would explain why he did not find any signs that Kotze had been shot from close range, if such signs had been present in the first place, Westraat said.Deputy Prosecutor-General Job Kozonguizi is set to continue to present the State’s case to the court today.This was indicated in testimony that Judge Sylvester Mainga heard in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday, on the second day of the trial of Dewald Ludeke, the friend and colleague of Kotze who is facing a charge of murder over Kotze’s death.Ludeke (29) on Monday pleaded not guilty to all three charges he is facing: the main charge of murder and two alternative counts of failing to safeguard a firearm in his possession and handling a firearm while under the influence of alcohol.In a short written plea explanation, he informed the court that he and Kotze were “good friends and colleagues”, and that they were enjoying some drinks and each other’s company in his flat at Grootfontein on the evening of October 1 2002.”At a stage in the early hours of the morning the accused went to visit the toilet,” Ludeke relates in the statement.”When the accused was leaving the toilet he heard a gunshot.Upon his return to the lounge he found the deceased with a gunshot wound in the head which may have been either accidentally or intentionally self-inflicted.”Ludeke was arrested and charged with murder five days after the shooting, in part because the Police’s suspicions were raised by the unusual position of the gunshot wound to Ludeke’s head and the claimed absence of gunpowder residue either on his hands or around the wound.At that stage, an initial autopsy had been carried out on Kotze’s remains at Grootfontein, whereafter his body was transported to Windhoek for further examination.In August the next year, ten months after he had been buried at Grootfontein, his remains were exhumed, and part of his skull was removed to be sent to South Africa for further forensic analysis.That part of the skull, bearing a bullet hole, surfaced in court yesterday afternoon.Holding it in his hands, the commander of the ballistics unit of the South African Police Service’s Forensic Science Laboratory in the Western Cape, Senior Superintendent Willem Visser, showed the piece of skull to Judge Mainga to demonstrate to him that in his opinion the shot that struck Kotze’s head had come from an angle to the left and from a point higher than his face.The fatal shot struck Kotze’s head slightly above his hairline, on the right-hand side top of his head.Crime-scene photographs show that Kotze was sitting on a couch in the lounge of Ludeke’s flat, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles in what appeared to be a relaxed pose, when he was shot.His head was turned to the right, and rested against the back of the couch.Further to his right stood a lounge chair, and to the right of that was a door.In his opinion, the fatal shot had been fired from that doorway, William Nambahu, Chief Forensic Scientist of Namibia’s National Forensic Science Institute, told the court when he testified on Monday and yesterday.Nambahu had compiled a report in which he stated that his findings – after examining Kotze’s body at the Police Mortuary in Windhoek on October 9 2002 and visiting the scene eight days later – were that the shot was fired from more than a metre away, that Kotze did not shoot himself, and that the shot was fired from that doorway next to the lounge chair.Judging from the trajectory of the shot that could be deduced from the nature of the bullet hole in the skull, this scenario would mean, however, that Kotze’s head would have been turned to almost face the wall when he was shot, Visser agreed with Ludeke’s defence counsel, Rudi Cohrssen, yesterday.Cohrssen also whittled away at Nambahu’s findings while Nambahu himself was in the witness box, until the scientist agreed that the findings in his report were just his opinions, and that he could not rule out the possibility that the shooting had taken place in some other way.One of these ways, according to Cohrssen, was that Kotze might have been handling Ludeke’s 9 mm pistol on his lap while looking down at it when a shot went off.In such a scenario, the bullet might have struck him at such an angle and at that spot on the top of his head, Cohrssen stated to Nambahu.The scientist agreed that was possible.Earlier, he had told the court that in the more than ten years that he had worked as a forensic scientist, he had never seen anyone shooting himself in the way that Kotze was, with an entrance wound in the top of his head, above his hairline.He also testified that he did not see any signs of gunpowder burns or soot around the wound or in the hair around the wound, which are signs that he would have expected if Kotze had shot himself while holding the gun against or close to his head.Then again, Cohrssen also got Nambahu to concede that he did not do microscopic observation or chemical testing to confirm whether there were signs of gunshot propellant too small to be observed by the naked eye.But according to a colleague of Visser, Senior Superintendent Jaco Westraat, it is indeed possible to test bloody hair to determine whether a shot had been fired from close range or not.Westraat heads the Western Cape Forensic Science Laboratory’s chemistry unit.He received the piece of Kotze’s skull in October 2003 with a request to establish whether it contained any traces of gunpowder, he told the court yesterday.He could not find anything, he testified.The piece of skull had, however, been cleaned very thoroughly, and that would explain why he did not find any signs that Kotze had been shot from close range, if such signs had been present in the first place, Westraat said.Deputy Prosecutor-General Job Kozonguizi is set to continue to present the State’s case to the court today.