Francistown High Court Judge, Tshekiso Tshekiso has convicted and sentenced 36-year-old Antonio Basipo Moses to 37 years in prison for the brutal, heinous, and painful death of his girlfriend, Lorato Atlarelang Bashe, back in 2021.
During the trial, the court learnt that sometime in August 2021 in Tati Siding on the outskirts of Francistown, Moses was joined by his girlfriend while he was attending to a breakdown for a cross-border client along the A1 highway. While the couple were together, they had an argument over a WhatsApp message and a pornographic video sent to Bashe by another man. It was during this heated argument that Moses drove his vehicle into the bush and assaulted his girlfriend with a wheel spanner.
After assaulting her, Moses carried the body of his girlfriend into a car he had borrowed from a friend and drove to his house in Francistown. There, he was seen carrying the seemingly lifeless body of Bashe from the vehicle into the house.
When delivering his sentence, Justice Tshekiso ruled that the deceased suffered a painful death at the hands of her so-called lover. He noted that her fatal injuries were inflicted during a devastating attack with an offensive weapon, a wheel spanner.
“This violence at the time the country is grappling with the so-called gender-based violence, requires an exemplary sentence, lest the fight against violent crimes is lost and the courts, by its sentence contribute to the loss,” stated Justice Tshekiso.
Moses escaped the hangman’s noose by virtue of being a first offender and because he had not premeditated the killing of his girlfriend.
In pleading for leniency, Moses said he had suffered the loss of a partner whom he intended to marry and spend their lifetime together. Furthermore, he pleaded that he is a father of twins who were born in 2024, mitigatory factors which Judge Tshekiso squashed.
“The loss of a girlfriend does not serve as mitigation in his favour. He killed her and cannot be heard to ride on her death as mitigation.”
He continued, “as they say love is patient and kind. If the accused truly loved the deceased, his love for her would have prevailed over the anger calling him to resort to violence. Love extinguishes the flaming fire of anger,” charged Justice Tshekiso.
The judge found Moses did not have an iota of remorse, as he did not take his girlfriend to a hospital after bashing her body several times with a wheel spanner. Instead, he opted to massage her in the confines of their house, with the hope she would recover from the multiple injuries he had inflicted.
“Because of panic and fear he did not take the deceased to the hospital. This submission contradicts the evidence of the accused that she was not injured so much that he considered her life to be in danger. Secondly, evidence indicates the accused became furious when it was suggested he call the police to assist the deceased. He did not want the deceased to be helped by professionals,” added Justice Tshekiso prior to declaring the 37-year sentence.
