A 30-YEAR-OLD Harare man who bludgeoned his father’s tenant with bricks and fatally scalded him with a hot electric iron before stealing his vehicle and property worth $8 000, was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment after he was convicted of murder.
BY CHARLES LAITON
High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi, however, spared Simbarashe Chimuka from the hangman’s noose, but slapped him with a life term after ruling that he pre-planned Clemence Chitete’s killing.
During the trial, Prosecutor-General’s representative Tapiwa Kasema presented that on November 5, 2014, Chimuka went to number 83 Blakeway Drive, Belvedere in Harare, where his father’s tenant resided.
The court heard upon arrival, Chimuka scaled a precast wall before breaking the kitchen door of the cottage where Chitete was renting.
While inside, the court heard, he then attacked Chitete with a stone, brick and hot electric iron, resulting in his victim sustaining severe injuries and burns which later led to his death.
After committing the heinous offence, the court heard, Chimuka proceeded to help himself to Chitete’s 32-inch television set, two cellphones, an HP laptop and a Toyota Corolla, registration number ADE 5146, before driving away with the stolen loot.
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However, two days later, Chimuka was arrested in Victoria Falls while trying to escape to Zambia and was found in possession of Chitete’s neck chain, driver’s licence and house keys.
Upon his arrest, Chimuka is said to have led the police to the recovery of the vehicle, laptop and cell-phones, a blood-stained brick and the clothes that he was wearing during the time he committed the offence.
Chimuka also made indications at the scene of the crime showing the police how he attacked his victim before disappearing with his property.
