A Woman accused of murdering her one-year-old son two years ago refused to plead to the criminal charges she is facing at the start of her trial in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
“I am not pleading,” Lucia Boois (37) told judge Philanda Christiaan when she was asked what her plea on a charge of murder is.
“This case is already delict at regional court. I already finished at regional,” Boois said, adding she was facing an unfair trial.
Boois, who is a former police officer, has chosen not to be represented by a lawyer during her trial.
She is being prosecuted on a charge of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, and defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
The state is alleging that Boois murdered her son, Amare Boois, at a farm in the Bethanie area in the //Kharas region on 12 January 2023.
Amare was killed when he was allegedly stabbed at least 15 times with a knife.
Boois is also accused of trying to conceal evidence of the killing and frustrate a police investigation by burying Amare’s body in a shallow grave and burning some clothes and other objects.
Christiaan recorded pleas of not guilty on both counts after Boois refused to plead to the charges.
During a subsequent exchange with the judge, Boois repeated that her case was “delict” at a regional court, without explaining what she meant with the term, that there is evidence missing, and that “they keep augmenting evidence, they keep omitting evidence”.
“My release under the United Nations charter is long overdue,” Boois added.
“I will not proceed with this trial without a tribunal, without a lawyer from the United Nations.”
Boois said as well: “I want to put everything behind me and move on with my life. I’m tired.”
When the judge advised her to take notes while listening to the testimony during the trial, Boois said she did not want to make notes.
“I just want a verdict,” she said.
She further said she would not be indicted in Namibia and wanted to be under a mandate of the United Nations.
“I have already renounced my Namibian citizenship,” said Boois.
State advocate Emma Mayavero, who is representing the prosecution, informed the court that Boois pleaded guilty to a murder charge in the Keetmanshoop Magistrate’s Court in January 2023, but the state did not accept her plea and the presiding magistrate was also not satisfied with the plea.
There is no record of her case having been finalised in a lower court, Mayavero said.
Boois’ mother, Hildegard Boois, who is a retired police officer, was the first state witness that testified in the trial.
She told the court that Amare was treated in a hospital for a month after his birth.
After Boois and a sister of hers fetched Amare from the hospital when he was discharged, he was at first taken to a home for unwanted children at Swakopmund, Hildegard said.
Boois and her son later lived with her mother at Swakopmund, before she took Amare to his father’s family, including his paternal grandmother, at Rehoboth, where the boy lived for about three months, Hildegard told the court.
She also said Boois was again living with her at Swakopmund after fetching Amare from his father’s family.
Boois left her mother’s house with Amare after she had been involved in arguments and fights with her brother, Hildegard said.
She remarked: “The manner in which the child was killed is not normal. A normal person could not do that.”
She also said: “I do not think it is normal that Lucia should travel such a long distance and then kill her boy. […] Maybe she is sick in her head, she’s not normal.”
Boois went through a period of psychiatric observation in March and April last year.
A panel of mental health professionals concluded at the end of the observation period that she had borderline personality disorder and a persistent depressive disorder.
The panel also found that she is fit to stand trial, but had a diminished responsibility when the alleged offences were committed.
Boois is being held in custody.
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