Suspect acquitted in trial over murder of Otavi vet

THE murder of an Otavi area farmer and veterinarian in August 2001 remains unsolved after the only man to have been prosecuted over the incident was acquitted on all charges in the Otjiwarongo Regional Court yesterday.

Regional Court Magistrate Christie Liebenberg found Willem Geibeb (26) not guilty on all the charges that he had faced – counts of murder, housebreaking and theft of a motor vehicle – in connection with the murder of the 61-year-old veterinarian Johannes Bruno Richter. Richter was killed at his home on the farm Sovis, some 25 kilometres northeast of Otavi, on August 28 2001.He died from a head injury suspected to have been caused by a blunt object, and from a stab wound to his chest.Geibeb was arrested almost a year and a half later, on January 10 2003, after the Police had received information from someone that implicated him in the killing.The person who implicated Geibeb, Kombat resident Ernst Smith, was initially also arrested and charged in connection with Richter’s death, but the charges against him were withdrawn when the case was referred to the Regional Court for trial, and Smith was instead used as a State witness against Geibeb.Magistrate Liebenberg was not convinced by Smith’s testimony, though.He decided that Smith’s testimony, which was the only evidence implicating Geibeb in the crime, could not be relied on, and that without this evidence, there was insufficient evidence to prove the case against Geibeb beyond a reasonable doubt.In the trial, which started in October last year, Smith claimed that Geibeb had told him in fine detail how he had killed Richter at the farm.However, Geibeb and Smith were not close friends, and this sort of confession was not something that one would expect anyone to make to someone that was not at least a close friend, the court reasoned.Smith gave detailed testimony about what he claimed Geibeb had told him about the crime – including that he had borrowed a bicycle to ride to Richter’s farm, that dogs were barking at him there, and that he looked at Richter through a window and saw him lying on a bed.This evidence was so detailed, however, that it instead raised the possibility that Smith might himself have been present at the scene of the crime – which was also the reason why Smith had in the first place been arrested and charged.Smith’s evidence, which painted a picture of Geibeb having been a lone perpetrator of the murder, was furthermore contradicted by evidence that fingerprints lifted from Richter’s Ford bakkie, which was stolen from the farm when he was killed, did not match Geibeb’s prints.This evidence again pointed to the possibility that someone else had been involved in the crimes.In the end, Smith’s evidence left the court with a sense of discomfort, the Magistrate commented.Geibeb claimed he was at a farm in the Outjo area, where he was working at that stage, at the time that Richter was killed.This alibi was not rebutted during the trial, Magistrate Liebenberg further found.Richter was killed at his home on the farm Sovis, some 25 kilometres northeast of Otavi, on August 28 2001.He died from a head injury suspected to have been caused by a blunt object, and from a stab wound to his chest.Geibeb was arrested almost a year and a half later, on January 10 2003, after the Police had received information from someone that implicated him in the killing.The person who implicated Geibeb, Kombat resident Ernst Smith, was initially also arrested and charged in connection with Richter’s death, but the charges against him were withdrawn when the case was referred to the Regional Court for trial, and Smith was instead used as a State witness against Geibeb.Magistrate Liebenberg was not convinced by Smith’s testimony, though.He decided that Smith’s testimony, which was the only evidence implicating Geibeb in the crime, could not be relied on, and that without this evidence, there was insufficient evidence to prove the case against Geibeb beyond a reasonable doubt.In the trial, which started in October last year, Smith claimed that Geibeb had told him in fine detail how he had killed Richter at the farm.However, Geibeb and Smith were not close friends, and this sort of confession was not something that one would expect anyone to make to someone that was not at least a close friend, the court reasoned.Smith gave detailed testimony about what he claimed Geibeb had told him about the crime – including that he had borrowed a bicycle to ride to Richter’s farm, that dogs were barking at him there, and that he looked at Richter through a window and saw him lying on a bed.This evidence was so detailed, however, that it instead raised the possibility that Smith might himself have been present at the scene of the crime – which was also the reason why Smith had in the first place been arrested and charged.Smith’s evidence, which painted a picture of Geibeb having been a lone perpetrator of the murder, was furthermore contradicted by evidence that fingerprints lifted from Richter’s Ford bakkie, which was stolen from the farm when he was killed, did not match Geibeb’s prints.This evidence again pointed to the possibility that someone else had been involved in the crimes.In the end, Smith’s evidence left the court with a sense of discomfort, the Magistrate commented.Geibeb claimed he was at a farm in the Outjo area, where he was working at that stage, at the time that Richter was killed.This alibi was not rebutted during the trial, Magistrate Liebenberg further found.