COMEDIENNE Felistas “Mai TT” Murata has been found not guilty of theft of trust property after successfully appealing the lower court’s verdict to sentence her to nine months behind bars.
Murata, who was left with only one month to complete her sentence after her conviction at the magistrates court, was found not guilty by High Court judges led by Justice Happius Zhou, who ruled that the lower court erred in convicting her.
Justice Zhou upheld her appeal after the State failed to file an opposing affidavit while consenting that magistrate Munashe Chibanda erred in convicting her.
Murata was being accused of using a hired car as surety for a loan.
The comedienne’s custodial sentence was lengthened by three months from the original effective six after authorities discovered that she had defaulted on community service after serving just 19 of the required 105 hours of a previous conviction.
In her ruling, magistrate Chibanda sent Murata to prison saying she was not a good candidate for community service.
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For the theft of trust property charge, Murata was initially jailed 12 months, but six were suspended on condition of good behaviour.
This was after the State confirmed from the community service department that, indeed, Murata was once convicted by a Mbare Magistrates Court for a domestic violence case involving her ex-husband, Tawanda Mutikani, in October 2015.
Murata was jailed three months, which were suspended on condition that she performed 105 hours of community service in Budiriro, but she defaulted.
She was issued with a warrant of arrest on February 1, 2016.
The State had alleged that Murata hired a Mercedes-Benz from Else Event Car Hire last year and handed the vehicle over as collateral for a US$10 000 loan to Rachel Mhuka.
This was despite the fact that Murata knew that the hired vehicle was accumulating charges, and even went to the United States without returning it to the owner.
She returned to Zimbabwe after her visa was cancelled and reclaimed the Mercedes-Benz saying it did not belong to her and surrendered another vehicle, an Audi Q5.
That vehicle was also hired and Murata again reclaimed this vehicle and replaced it with an invalid passport as surety.
When Mhuka realised that the passport was invalid, she confronted Murata who immediately sent back the second vehicle, the Audi, as security.
The Audi owner then reclaimed the vehicle from Mhuka.
However, the High Court ruled that Murata should not have been convicted.