Walvis youths to be sentenced today

TWO young men from Walvis Bay who went on a murder, rape and robbery spree close to two years ago will hear their fate in the High Court in Windhoek this morning.

Judge Elton Hoff yesterday convicted the older man (19) on a charge of murder, four charges of rape and one of robbery with aggravating circumstances.The younger accused (18) was convicted on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances. The two were charged with the killing of Lester Jordaan (24), also a Walvis Bay resident, on the evening of October 31 2008 in the harbour town’s Narraville residential area.According to the State, they then went to rape a young woman, who was 16 at the time, in a flat in the same neighbourhood before fleeing the scene with stolen loot.The men were aged 17 and 16 at the time of the incidents. As a result, their names cannot be published.Judge Hoff found that the younger man should be given the benefit of the doubt regarding the rape charges after both he and the older accused testified that the younger man had not touched the rape complainant. The young woman testified that he had raped her on two occasions that night.Moreover, Judge Hoff said, the medical evidence presented by the State did not support the prosecution’s version of what the younger man was accused of having done to the complainant.Earlier, Judge Hoff granted an application for discharge on the murder charge made by Nolan Swarts, the younger man’s lawyer.In his judgement that lasted less than an hour, Judge Hoff said the older man, who admitted that he had stabbed Jordaan, must have realised that his actions could have led to fatal injuries.What contributes to this view is the amount of force used to inflict a wound which penetrated Jordaan’s heart and a lung.The man initially pleaded not guilty to murder. Instead, he pleaded guilty to culpable homicide.By his own admissions last week, the man testified that he still had the murder weapon, a knife, in his hand when they arrived at a flat from which they wanted to steal.Upon arrival, they found the complainant, who was taking care of young children for the night. The children’s parents were at a bar for the night.Judge Hoff agreed with the girl, who testified last week that the older man had raped her at four different places in the flat. The judge said it was clear that she was ‘petrified’ by the two men.Judge Hoff said the older man ‘tried to minimise his involvement in sexual acts with the complainant’ by alleging when he testified that he only raped her twice. This is one time less than what he admitted in his plea explanation given at the start of the trial.According to Judge Hoff, the younger man’s claim of ignorance about the violence perpetrated by the older accused did not hold any water.As a result, he convicted both men on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances.In mitigation, Mese Tjituri, for the older man, yesterday said the young man’s mother was mentally unstable and his father, although physically present, was ‘absent as a guiding force’.Tjituri said the man ‘started to behave in a delinquent way – probably as a result of his involvement with the wrong friends’, from the age of 15.Swarts asked for his client to be given a wholly suspended sentence.