THE High Court in Gweru has sentenced two siblings from Kwekwe to 40 and 15 years imprisonment, respectively, for fatally stabbing two brothers after a misunderstanding.
High Court judge Justice Evangelista Kabasa convicted Talcot and Agape Mpasi of murder after a full trial.
The court heard that on January 2022, the brothers had a misunderstanding with Nqaba and Kelvin Ndlovu before Talcot produced a Columbia knife and stabbed Nqaba on the back.
The court heard Nqaba staggered and fell and Agape stamped on him as he lay on the ground bleeding.
Talcot and Agape later charged towards Kelvin before the former stabbed him with the same knife once on the left side of the chest.
Kelvin fell and Agape stamped on him.
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The Ndlovus were ferried to Kwekwe General Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
In her ruling, Justice Kabasa said it was evident that Talcot was lying through his teeth, saying the injury he wanted to capitalise on in his attempt to claim self-defence, was not adding up.
“Nqaba is one of the two people he pursued and stabbed. It is very possible, therefore, that he sustained such injury either at the hands of members of the public who he said effected a citizen’s arrest or at the time he chased after Nqaba and Kelvin,” the judge said.
“There can be no self-defence when you are the aggressor pursuing victims who are fleeing from you.
“Equally, there can be no self-defence when you stab a person in the back. They have their back towards you, so what threat is posed in such circumstances to even talk of self-defence?”
Justice Kabasa said the court did not hesitate to dismiss the claim of self-defence.
“As for accused 2 (Agape), we acknowledge that where an alibi has been raised, the police must investigate it and the prosecutor must disprove it.
“At the point of arrest, it was not raised and it was raised not so much as to show where he was, but that he arrived at the scene when deceased had been stabbed.
“As regards his identification, we have already highlighted that five witnesses in all identified him in conditions that allowed for a positive identification with no possibility of a mistake,” the judge said.
Justice Kabasa said Agape’s identification by all the State witnesses was not a coincidence or a mistake, adding that evidence showed that Talcot stabbed the deceased persons and Agape trampled on their bodies.
She, however, found Talcot guilty of two counts of murder and Agape on one count.
Talcot was sentenced to 40 years for the two counts, while Agape was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.