Three men accused of robbing and murdering a Windhoek resident at the city’s Avis Dam green space in July 2020 have denied guilt on all of the charges they are facing in the Windhoek High Court.
The three accused – Iileka Kefas (37), Johannes Shetunyenga (36) and Antonio Cheme (29) – pleaded not guilty to seven charges when their trial commenced before judge Naomi Shivute on Tuesday.
None of the accused gave the judge a plea explanation.
The charges on which they denied guilt include a count of murder, two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, and charges of attempted murder and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
The state is alleging that the three accused were involved in an armed robbery that claimed the life of Windhoek resident Daniele Ferrari (52) at Avis Dam during the evening of 14 July 2020.
Kefas, Shetunyenga and Cheme are also accused of robbing a woman who visited the dam in the Avis area of Windhoek on 10 July 2020.
It is alleged that a cellphone, wristwatch, wallet, leather belt and two sets of keys were stolen from Ferrari when he was violently attacked and robbed during a visit to the dam.
Ferrari’s sister, Gloria Ferrari, testified on Tuesday that she went to the dam during the early evening of 14 July 2020 to look for her brother, because he took longer than usual to return from his customary walk.
She said she found her brother gravely injured, sitting in the driver’s seat of his car in a parking area at the dam.
The window of the driver’s side door of the car was shattered, she recalled.
She said her brother tried to say something to her, but she could not hear what he was saying.
In a state of shock, she then made a phone call his wife to ask her to summon an ambulance to the scene.
Daniele Ferrari died at the scene.
Ferrari’s widow, Odete Ferrari, told the court yesterday that she noticed her husband’s watch, belt, wallet and cellphone, and also remote control devices for their house, were gone when she arrived at the scene where he was found fatally injured in his car.
During her testimony, state advocate Ethel Ndlovu had a wristwatch, black leather belt and leather wallet – these were seized by the police during their investigation of the killing of Ferrari – shown to the witness, who was asked if she recognised the items.
The witness identified the watch, belt and wallet as items that belonged to her husband.
She said she paid about N$5 200 for the Swiss-made wristwatch when she bought it for him as a birthday present in February 2017.
She also bought him the belt, in January 2020, and recalled that they bought the wallet in Cape Town during a visit to South Africa.
The witness insisted she was certain the watch, belt and wallet she was shown were her husband’s.
Another witness, Mauuana Tjiuma, testified yesterday that he is a cousin of Kefas.
He said during July or August 2020 he was visiting Kefas at his home in the Havana area of Windhoek when he noticed that Kefas was wearing “a nice watch”.
Tjiuma said he asked Kefas if he could have the watch, and Kefas then gave it to him.
During November 2020, police officers questioned him about Kefas and asked him if Kefas had given him a watch, he said.
Tjiuma added that he was wearing the watch at that point, and he then surrendered it to the police.
When shown the watch that Odette Ferrari identified, Tjiuma said it looked like the one he received from Kefas, but he was not sure it was the same watch.
Defence lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji, who is representing Kefas, told Tjiuma that Kefas says he never gave a watch to Tjiuma.
“I am telling the court what I know,” Tjiuma said. “I got the watch from my cousin. […] If you don’t believe me, what can I say?”
The trial is continuing.
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