Fly to hang

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday January 29, 2010 00:00

 

'We also took extreme caution to comb the evidence to check for exceptional extenuating circumstances but we found none.

We have confirmed the conviction of the trial judge and the death sentence is confirmed,' the judges said. Fly has been convicted of killing his two year-old son in Francistown using an axe.

The court heard that he had a misunderstanding with the mother of the child several months before the killing and that he had access to the boy.

He told the court that he killed the child by accident when he tried to throw away the axe after armed police instructed him to put it down. He was inside the house with the child. His lawyer argued that nobody saw what happened inside the house hence the court should believe his testimony.

Meanwhile, criminal lunatic Liberty Mhlanga will never enjoy his liberty because the court feels he is not fit to live in society. He is likely to spend the rest of his life at Sbrana Mental Hospital in Lobatse after his attorney failed to prove that he has recovered from his mental illness. The man was put in jail 10 years ago after committing offences ranging from theft, robberies and two murders in Mahalapye.

He was put in jail at the President's pleasure after it was discovered that he was insane when he committed the offences and that he is a criminal lunatic. The state attorneys have already told the court that they have found him a nice place at the newly opened Mental Hospital (Sbrana).

In another appeal, Keolebogile Sephiri left the court a happy man after his life sentence was slashed to 19 years. Sephiri appealed a sentence of 12 years imprisonment for rape and a life sentence for another rape.

In the second count it is said the complainant was at her home around dawn and putting chairs into her house when she felt somebody touching her shoulder from behind. When she turned around, Sephiri hit her with a broomstick until she fell down.

He then pinned her to the ground and strangled her until she became unconscious. When she regained consciousness she found that her clothes had been removed. She felt sexually abused. The High Court sentenced Sephiri to life imprisonment for the offence but the Court of Appeal reduced it to seven years, which will run consecutively with the first count.

Tshepiso Letsididi tried his luck at the Court of Appeal but failed to overturn a 14-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend. 

The court heard that Letsididi shot his girlfriend after she told him that she wanted to end the relationship because she had found a new boyfriend. Letsididi appealed the 14-year sentence saying that it is excessive.