A 26-YEAR-OLD Marondera man who axed his war veteran employer to death before fleeing with his vehicle last year has been referred for psychiatric examination after exhibiting “weird” behaviour in court.
by Jairos Saunyama
Tapiwa Murombo of Plot 26, Rhodesdale Farm, who is also facing theft charges, refused to respond to questions by the State during mitigation, prompting magistrate Jabulani Mzinyathi to refer him to be examined by psychiatrists.
He will be back in court tomorrow.
The accused will also appear at the High Court facing charges of murdering war veteran Partson Musarandoga.
According to court papers, on August 21, 2015, at around 6:30pm, Musarandoga left his plot at Rhodesdale Farm for Chitungwiza.
He was driving his Toyota Vitz vehicle when he offered the accused a lift to Mushandirapamwe business centre, where the latter wanted to withdraw money from his mobile money account. The accused sat on the passenger seat.
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On approaching the Harare-Wedza Highway, it is said Murombo struck the now-deceased with an axe on the nose and several times in the head before tying Musarandoga with a rope around the neck.
The accused is then said to have taken the deceased’s mobile phone before he pulled him to the passenger seat using the rope.
He drove the vehicle to Rhodesdale Dam near Mushandirapamwe business centre where he threw the deceased into the water.
Murombo used the deceased’s mobile phone to text a message to one Kudzaishe Bondera, purporting to be Musarandoga.
He instructed Bondera to sell a tonne of maize and hand over the money to the accused so that he could take it to Rusape where Musarandoga was said to have bought another plot.
The accused later went back to the plot where Bondera informed him that the deceased had instructed him [Bondera] to sell a tonne of maize.
The next day, Murombo and Bondera then loaded the maize on a tractor-drawn trailer and drove to Mushandirapamwe, where they sold the grain.
The accused took all the money and, accompanied by his wife, proceeded to Marondera where they did some shopping.
On the same day, the accused returned to where he had left the vehicle and drove away.
On September 1, 2015, police were tipped off that the accused was in Kariba.
Three detectives then made a follow-up and arrested the accused there after a shootout as he tried to escape from the police.
The accused then directed the detectives to where he had dumped the deceased’s body in a dam. Rumbidzai Katsande prosecuted.
