Two guilty of murdering City Police member

TWO young men accused of robbing and murdering a Windhoek City Police officer in his home in early 2005 were convicted in the High Court in Windhoek this week.

Judge Kato van Niekerk found Steven Goagoseb (25) and Michael Williams (24) guilty on counts of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances on Tuesday – a year and four days after the two men’s trial started before her with both of them not guilty to both charges.Goagoseb and Williams were accused of robbing and murdering Windhoek City Police member Anton Matesu (40) in his home in Windhoek during the night of January 22 to 23 2005.The two charged men elected not to testify in their own defence last month. The prosecution had closed its case against them in late June last year already, whereafter their trial was postponed to May 17 this year.The items taken from Matesu’s house included a computer, two television sets, a home theatre system, a microwave oven and other kitchen equipment.These items were found stored at the house shared by Goagoseb and Williams. During the trial the court heard that Goagoseb had sold the computer, and had been found in possession of a ring belonging to Matesu when he was arrested.Judge Van Niekerk also heard testimony from a former girlfriend of Williams who told the court that after Williams and Goagoseb had been arrested, Williams told her that he and Goagoseb had been at Matesu’s house, where Williams and Matesu at one stage fell asleep on a bed.According to her, Williams related that Goagoseb then pressed on Matesu’s throat until he lost consciousness.Matesu was found tied up and dead in a locked bedroom in his house on the evening of January 23 2005. He had been gagged with a belt, and died as a result of suffocation.During the trial the defence lawyers representing the two men claimed that according to their clients they had been asked by Matesu’s estranged wife to help a friend of her to remove items from Matesu’s home.Judge Van Niekerk found these claims to be improbable. The way they handled the goods taken from Matesu’s house was also not consistent with their claims of having kept the goods on behalf of Matesu’s wife, she said.She noted that Matesu had last been seen alive in the company of Goagoseb and Williams, who according to the instructions given to their lawyers admitted having been at Matesu’s house and having removed goods from the house.The chance that someone else would have tied up and gagged Matesu after they had left his house is completely unlikely, she said.The only reasonable inference that could be drawn from the evidence before the court is that Goagoseb and Williams had tied up and gagged Matesu, she found.Goagoseb and Williams are set to return to court on Tuesday next week for a date to be set when evidence and arguments should be heard on the sentences to be imposed on them.State advocate Belinda Wantenaar prosecuted. Goagoseb is represented by Lucia Hamutenya, while Bradley Basson is representing Williams.The two men have been in custody since January 2005.