Man murders girlfriend
Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday June 29, 2022 15:46
Moses Lesaro was convicted on his own plea of guilt for murdering the mother of his four children, Diane Jeremea, on August 16, 2017 at Manowe ward in Tonota.
When pleading for his client to not receive the ultimate sentence of death, Lesaro’s attorney Morgan Moseki said in mitigation that according to a witness Balometse Ditshebo, both Lesaro and Jemerea looked drunk before Jeremea met her unfortunate death.
Moseki stated that what triggered the convict to murder the deceased is that on August 13, 2017, the latter gave an unconvincing explanation about her whereabouts when the former asked her.
The convict, Moseki explained, had previously chased the deceased from his place and she went to live at her grandmother’s place.
During that fateful day, Moseki continued, Lesaro went to a shebeen where amongst other liquor sold is a traditional brew called Khadi which he consumed.
“Whilst the convict was still at the shebeen, the deceased later arrived and the former bought relish when he saw her. Thereafter, the convict asked the deceased to go to his place and cook the relish for him. The deceased refused telling the convict that she could not do that because he had chased her away from his place a few days back. The convict then took a knife and stabbed the deceased once on top of her left breast. When sentencing the convict, the court should take into account that some prosecution witnesses have said that he looked drunk when he committed the unfortunate incident,” Moseki pleaded.
It is in light of the above mentioned fact that drunkenness coupled with the fact that the convict and deceased lived a life that was punctuated with violence from either side that the court should consider that when passing sentence, Moseki went on.
“Here was a couple who always fought after consuming alcohol as evidence from some prosecution witnesses can attest to. Nothing has been placed before court that on that fateful day, the convict set out to harm the deceased. We urge the court that exceptional extenuating circumstances do exist in this case and we therefore ask it to tamper justice with mercy by not passing the ultimate sentence of death because the convict was drunk. We also submit that the convict lived his whole life as a herd boy and therefore is from a rustic background. On top of that, he never went to school and as such, he could not understand the consequences of his actions like other members of society who are not from the same class of society as him,” said Moseki.
The convict, Moseki added, pleaded guilty to the charge and did not waste the court’s valuable time.
“This, we submit, is a sign of remorse on his part and we pray that if given a second chance in life, he will mend his ways. The convict has two previous convictions of assault occasioning bodily harm and being found in possession of stolen property. However, we urge the court to consider the plight of his four children who look up to him as a father for survival. We are however not underestimating the gravity of the offence he has committed,” said Moseki.
Justice Bashi Moesi will deliver sentence on the matter on August 12, 2022.