Suspect admits stabbing was attempt to murder

AFTER more than a year and two months in custody following a near-fatal knife attack on his girlfriend, Windhoek resident Martin Lupalezwi finally pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder yesterday.

Lupalezwi (32) admitted before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs in the Windhoek Regional Court that he intended to kill one of his girlfriends, Lillian Tawo, when he stabbed her in the neck at his home in Khomasdal on March 2 last year.Tawo came close to losing her life as a result of the stabbing. She spent a month in hospital, and still bears the scars of the attack at the hands of the man who is the father of her child.Lupalezwi was employed as a carpenter at the time of the incident.In a written plea explanation he admitted that he stabbed Tawo in the neck with a knife on March 2 last year, and that he did so with an intention to kill her.He explained that he and Tawo had a quarrel after she had complained about his relationship with another woman, with whom he was living at the time. He in turn told Tawo that he had heard that she, too, was involved with another man, Lupalezwi stated.’The quarrel manifested in a physical fight and we ended up struggling,’ his plea explanation reads.’In the process I stabbed her on her neck with a knife. The stabbing caused a cut on her neck,’ Lupalezwi stated.He added that he knew that a knife is a dangerous weapon which could cause someone’s death if used to stab the person in a vulnerable part of the body.He further stated he was admitting that he intended to try to murder Tawo, and that he was taking full responsibility for his actions.He is sorry for his actions, has apologised to Tawo, and is asking the court to have mercy when he is to be sentenced, Lupalezwi’s statement said.Based on his plea, which Public Prosecutor Cliff Lutibezi said was being accepted by the prosecution, Lupalezwi was convicted as charged.His trial is scheduled to continue with the hearing of testimony and arguments in mitigation and aggravation of sentence on Friday.Lupalezwi is still being kept in custody, after an application by him to be released on bail was refused in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura in June last year.Defence lawyer Orben Sibeya is representing Lupalezwi.