A POLICE constable based in Harare and a soldier have been jailed 36 years for armed robbery, with one count involving raiding the home of a retired homicide detective who shot dead three of their accomplices.
Constable-turned-armed-robber Francis Takura, soldier Wirimai Nyandoro and their accomplice Shane Nyamhunga were sentenced by magistrate Stanford Mambanje.
They were facing three counts of robbery.
Nyandoro and Nyamhunga were acquitted on counts one and two.
On count one, Takura was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with two years suspended on condition of good behaviour and another two if he restitutes the complainant US$13 650 before August 30.
On the second count, he was sentenced to 12 years, with two years suspended on condition of good behaviour and a further two years scrapped off for restitution of US$6 767 by August 30.
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On count three, the three were sentenced to 12 years each, but two years were suspended.
One year was suspended on condition that they restitute US$1 600 by end of August.
Mambanje ruled that the State had submitted overwhelming evidence against the convicts after their fingerprints were picked by the forensics department.
The court heard that on November 5 last year, James Rikonda was asleep when the trio attacked him armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a pistol.
They forced Rikonda and his wife to lie down and demanded cash.
They then ransacked the house and stole US$11 550, a wallet, cellphone and a 9mm Norinco pistol.
They demanded more cash and were told that money was kept at Rikonda’s workplace.
They demanded Rikonda’s Toyota Hilux GD-6 vehicle before force-marching him and his wife to the vehicle, drove to his workplace, where they stole US$10 000.
On another count, they attacked the home of retired Criminal Investigations Department (CID) detective, Joseph Nemaisa, in December 2021.
He was away when they ransacked his house, held his family hostage and stole US$850, a cellphone, laptop and a shotgun.
But as the gang was about to leave the house, Nemaisa arrived after being alerted about the intruders, leading to a shootout.
Three of their accomplices, Brian Koga Tendere, Charles Chirara and Tariro Gora, were shot dead. Takura and Nyandoro escaped through the window.
Gora was supposed to be on duty at the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA)’s elite commando regiment.
Chirara was one of over 10 suspects in the US$2,7 million ZB Bank cash-in-transit heist in January 2021 and had been released on bail by the High Court.
Tendere was once jailed for 12 years for armed robbery and attempted murder.