Murderer gets 18 years in jail

Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday April 2, 2015 12:28

 

The sentence was backdated to 2012 when the accused was first incarcerated after killing Faros with an axe in 2011.  

Goitsemang buried his head in shame after the sentence and was quickly whisked away by prison wardens through the backdoor, denying journalists an opportunity to take his pictures.

Passing down sentence, Letsididi said that there are extenuating circumstances that may have led the accused to commit the offence.

Letsididi said that he considered what the accused said in mitigation through his attorney, Isaac Seleka.

“The accused is a first offender who has no previous brushes with the law prior to the commission of the offence.  He is a breadwinner to his four young children who look up to him for their welfare.  He also consumed a lot of alcohol during the day before he committed the offence,” said Letsididi.

However, Letsididi said that the accused committed a very serious offence because he took the life of someone who had the constitutional right to enjoy living.

He added: “This court is inundated with cases where men use weapons whenever they feel aggrieved by their partners, which often end with fatal consequences. Society is looking up to the courts to invoke deterrent sentences that would prevent others from doing similar offences in future”.

The judge added that Goitsemang killed Faros out of jealousy.

Letsididi said that the injuries sustained were brutal adding that the deceased was killed while trying to run away.

Prior to the sentence, attorney Seleka said that there are extenuating circumstances that made the accused commit the offence.

He said that the accused was provoked by a cell phone call that the deceased answered in the middle of the night.

“The murder was also not premeditated.  He was remorseful after he committed the offence and had drank alcohol, which made him not distinguish between right and wrong,” said Seleka.

Prosecutor, Carlos Diundu said that there were no exceptional extenuating circumstances that warranted the accused to commit the offence.

He said Goitsemang was purely driven by jealousy to commit the offence.

“He did not even know the person the deceased was talking to over the phone and did not know if he or she was related to the deceased or not,” said Diundu.

Diundu added that contrary to what the defence attorney said, Goitsemang was not a minor, but was a 31 year old man when he committed the offence.

“He also chopped the deceased with an axe seven times and this shows that he clearly wanted to kill the deceased. He did not show any remorse after killing the deceased. He could have gone to the police or informed the parents of the deceased to show that he was remorseful for his act,” said Diundu.