Murder suspect, Covenant Moyo who has been behind bars for seven years, was last week discharged and acquitted by the Francistown High Court after the prosecution failed to prove that he killed Dipuo Tshiping.
Tshiping is said to have left for her farm on November 13, 2018, but never returned home. The 69-year-old woman was found dead next to a log, with an injury on her head and face the following morning by a search party. It appeared a sharp object was used to inflict the injuries.
Delivering judgment, Judge President Justice Bengbame Sechele said it is not in dispute that Tshiping died as a result of head injuries due to chop force trauma.
“And that the perpetrator whoever, he or she was acted unlawfully and of malice aforethought. The only issue arising for this Court’s determination is whether or not the accused person here inflicted the injuries that culminated in the deceased death,”, pointed out Justice Sechele.
“The State’s over reliance on the findings of the forensic scientist also faces insurmountable difficulties. The evidence that mixed DNA profile was detectable on the accused’s cap is, in my view tenuous and insufficient ground to inference that the court is being asked to draw,” highlighted Sechele.
Prosecution’s failure to produce the serviceability certificate of the forensic equipment used to analyse the exhibits, drove the final nail in their case. An omission which defence attorney rode on to submit that the DNA results were unreliable.
Judge Sechele said Moyo’s explanation that he was at his homestead on the alleged fateful day Tshiping was murdered is reasonably true. Moyo’s testimony was corroborated by the evidence of Keith Moyo which was admitted by the State and defence attorneys.
Francistown High Court Judge also castigated prosecution’s over reliance on the evidence of the deceased’s daughter in law Esnath Bibiza, who claimed to have observed the accused person closely when they met briefly on November 13, 2018.
“He was wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt, a blue pair of trousers and a red cap. The witness had no reason to observe the accused person closely. The meeting was casual fortuitous. This Court takes the view that the witness’s recollection is too good to be true,” continued the Judge.
“The fact that the witness is the deceased’s daughter in law is also a matter that may well have influenced her to conjure up facts with a view to implicate the accused person. The witness testimony is unreliable for purposes of identification of the clothing that the accused wore on November 13, 2018.”
“I am over the moon; can’t express the happiness I have at the moment. Since my arrest I have always told the police, Court that I am innocent. This crime was just being forced on me. My hands are clean; I have no blood on them. I have never killed anyone,” said Moyo, a few minutes after Judge Sechele freed the Zimbabwean native. The 38-year-old man was working as a herd boy in Tutume the time he was arrested.
