The adage – hell hath no fury like a woman scorned – aptly describes a 23-year- old Mutare woman who out of jealousy slew her ex-boyfriend’s girlfriend following an altercation.
Friday, a Mutare High Court circuit session heard that Fortune Mutsumbeyi (23) stabbed to death Judith Zinguwo (27) with a kitchen knife last year in September following a fight over a man in Dangamvura.
Mutsumbeyi was sentenced to 36 months in prison by High Court judge Justice Francis Bere after being convicted on a culpable homicide charge.
She had initially appeared before the same court facing a murder charge but the State dropped the charge after it emerged that the now deceased had been provocative and Mutsumbeyi had acted in self-defence when she stabbed her.
Charges against Mutsumbeyi were that on September 13 last year, she was with her boyfriend, Nicholas Kariga, at her house in Dangamvura at around 7 pm when Zinguwo came to the place.
The court heard Zinguwo was Kariga’s ex-girlfriend. Zinguwo and Kariga later went outside the house for a private conversation, leaving behind Mutsumbeyi doing her kitchen chores.
Mutsumbeyi later followed them holding a kitchen knife she had used for cutting vegetables.
When she caught up with the pair, an altercation erupted between Mutsumbeyi and Zinguwo and the quarrel degenerated into a fistfight.
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During the fight Mutsumbeyi stabbed Zinguwo on her back once and walked away from the scene.
She told the court that she stabbed her in self-defence because she felt overpowered.
Zinguwo was immediately rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead upon arrival.
A post-mortem conducted at Mutare Provincial Hospital revealed that she died as a result of a four- centimetre deep stab wound inflicted on her back.
However, in passing sentence Justice Bere noted that Mutsumbeyi made a cautious decision to defend herself but it was regrettable that she used a lethal weapon which took away the life of Zinguwo.
The court also conceded that at the time of commission of the crime Mustumbeyi was three months pregnant with Kariga’s baby.
She was however convicted of culpable homicide and sentenced to 36 months in prison but 12 of them were set aside on condition that she would not be convicted of a similar offence in the next five years.
Jane-Rose Matsikidze prosecuted.
