Unangoni Alton, who was convicted for a single charge of murder, was in April 2023 told he would have to hang by the neck for killing Kefilwe Mogorosi on October 25, 2012. He was sentenced by Gaborone High Court judge, Chris Gabanagae, after the judge said he found no extenuating circumstances and that it was a clear case where the death penalty must be imposed. However, in his plea before the Court of Appeal (CoA) bench, Alton believes the judge was wrong to sentence him to death considering what he was subjected to by the deceased girlfriend coupled with his intoxicated state having taken so many quarts of Black Label.
Through his counsel, Alton submitted that factors were present that cumulatively affected the accused’s inebriated state of mind at the relevant time and were of such significance as to reduce his moral blameworthiness. "Some of the factors being that he had been drinking and actually drank 12 quarts of Black Label beer the previous night non-stop up and until the commission of the offence the next day early in the morning," argued Alton. Alton reasoned that he was belittled with insults by the deceased, labelling him a useless individual of no value and that he was always after girls that he was grabbed by his testicles. Alton also said the judge ought to have found that there were extenuating circumstances. He said this is so because at the time he committed the offence he was convinced the deceased was cheating on him as he had actually found love messages on the deceased’s phone. The messages, Alton said, played a part in forming some irrational thinking in his head leading to the violent death as described by the pathologist. The State didn't oppose the application on reasons that the court is suitable to decide the appropriate sentence if it finds that there were extenuating circumstances.
Meanwhile, whilst sentencing the convict in 2023, Justice Gabanagae explained that it was a case that deserved a death sentence looking at the facts of the case. "I find that this is a clear case where the death penalty must be imposed. I find that at the age of 25 years, he was old enough to appreciate that killing another human being was wrong,” said the Judge then. Justice Gabanagae explained that the mitigation that at the time of the commission of the offence, the accused was relatively young at the age of 25 was not good enough as he was old enough to know better. He said the fact that the deceased was found naked at the scene meant she was probably raped before she was killed and that he repeatedly slit her neck to ensure that she was dead. "Accused was not so intoxicated—if at all he was intoxicated—that he didn't appreciate what he was doing. He had the strength to drag a person who was resisting from outside into the house, stabbed her numerous times, and cut her throat," Gabanagae said. "He left the knife stuck deeply in the deceased’s neck, then locked the door and jumped over the fence and fled the scene," Justice Gabanagae explained.
The judge pointed out that it was irreconcilable for the deceased to ask the convicted to have sex with her and at the same time take insults hurled at him as he claimed in his confession statement. He said it was not true that the deceased hurled insults at him as the witness who saw him dragging her into the house did not hear the deceased insulting him. The judge further noted that the deceased had lied in his unsworn testimony that he stabbed the deceased with a knife that he found in the bedroom where he and the deceased were fighting. “In your confession statement admitted by your attorney, you state that you had a table knife in your possession. You went to the deceased’s place in possession of the table knife. You clearly went to the deceased’s place with the sole intention of killing her in view of the manner in which the deceased was stabbed,” he said.
Judge Gabanagae explained that there were eight stab wounds on different parts of the deceased’s body and that there were also defensive wounds on her hands, demonstrating that she was trying to block the accused’s knife. Furthermore, the pathologist stated that the wounds were inconsistent with the accused defending himself against the deceased who had allegedly grabbed his testicles since the deceased died a violent death and what he did could be termed as "overkill". “I find that the murder of the deceased is aggravated in nature. The accused went to see or talk to the deceased with a knife in his possession. He had every intent to at least inflict harm or pain on the deceased and not just to talk. The wounds inflicted on the deceased and the manner in which she was killed were brutal,” the pathologist emphasised.
