Five Sentenced To 15 Years For Security Guard's Murder
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Monday April 23, 2018 14:56
Dibotelo convicted the accused for attacking and robbing a Chinese national and in the process murdering his security guard, Olebogile Ramapulane.
The long five year murder trial ended with the conviction of Lebang Ntesi, Phemelo Tshelang, Gorata Sebego, Patrick Gaile and Mpho Mangwa this week.
However, after finding them guilty of robbery and murder with extenuating circumstances, Dibotelo sentenced the five men to 10 years and 15 years imprisonment for robbery and murder respectively. The sentences shall run concurrently.
When delivering his sentence, the Chief Justice said although Ntesi, Tshelang, and Gaile had previous convictions, he disregarded that in sentencing the accused as it dates back some nine years ago.
He said he found that there were extenuating circumstances in favour of the accused persons constituted by lack of premeditation in that they set out to steal copper and during the robbery, the offence of murder was committed.
He said at the time when they committed the offence, all convicted persons had dependants but none of them had formal employment, which are mitigating factors in favour of them.
However, he said that there were aggravating factors, which in his view outweighed mitigating factors contributed by the level of actual violence that accompanied the robbery that resulted in the death of one of their victims.
“The deceased was assaulted brutally with metal pipes to the extent that his ribs and skull were fractured and bled into the brain; there were burns and injuries all over his body.
One has to look at the photo album to appreciate the brutality which was meted out to him by the accused persons,” he said. “The fact that a precious life was lost speaks volumes to the barbarism of these five accused and demonstrates the extent they were prepared to go to achieve their common purpose of stealing copper at Tuwana Construction.
In fact, the frequency with which armed robberies take place in this country is alarming and the courts cannot be oblivious to this state of affairs,” he added.
Dibotelo stated that when passing his sentence, he took into consideration the mitigating and aggravating factors, as well as what has been said in favour of the accused persons by the defence counsel.
He also ordered that the amounts of P12, 200 and P3, 080, pellet gun and a Dell laptop be returned to Tuwana Construction while the rest of the exhibits should be forfeited to the State for destruction.
According to the particulars of the offence, the five men who are all residents of Oodi in Kgatleng District, on the night of August 28, 2013 at Gaborone North farms acted together and murdered the night watchman who was guarding the Chinese Tuwana Construction Site camp.
They were also initially charged for the attempted murder of the Chinese man, Liu Jian Hui. He however left the country, thus letting the charge fall, after being treated and released from Princess Marina Hospital’s intensive care unit.