Gardener fatally assaulting boss

A BULAWAYO gardener who fatally hit his 86-year-old employer with a metal bar on the head when she fired him and then stole the deceased's money, laptop and cellphone before skipping the border, has been sentenced to life in jail.

Josias Mutikani (29) of Zaka under Chief Nyakunhuwa in Masvingo province was convicted of murder with actual intent by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha in connection with the death of Ms Doris Gill six years ago.

Mutikani had worked for Ms Gill for three weeks at her house in Qalisa Village in Suburbs in Bulawayo when his employment contract was terminated.

In passing the sentence, Justice Kamocha said it was clear that Mutikani had planned to commit the crime. Although the murder was committed during the course of robbery whose sentence warranted capital punishment, Justice Kamocha spared Mutikani's life taking into account the long period he had spent awaiting his trial.

"The accused spent a long period of pre-trial incarceration through no fault of his. This court agrees with both legal representatives that it is a mitigatory feature and in the result, he escapes the death sentence. However, a look at the other side of the coin reveals that the accused person is inherently wicked, killing the deceased in a callous fashion," said the judge.

"The mitigatory factor has saved him from capital punishment. However, his wickedness makes him unsuitable to join society in his life and accordingly he is sentenced to life imprisonment," ruled Justice Kamocha.

Four years ago, the judge ordered that his mental state should be established by two doctors, but they gave conflicting reports.

Mutikani was then taken to a qualified psychiatrist for another mental examination whose results proved that he was mentally stable at the time of committing the murder.

Mutikani, in his warned and cautioned statement, confessed that after killing Gill, he went on to steal a laptop, a Nokia cellphone, $3 800, £200 and R2 000 from a safe.

Prosecuting, Miss Nokuthaba Ngwenya said on November 27 in 2011, Mutikani armed himself with a metal bar and went to Gill's bedroom where she was sitting on a bed working on a laptop with the intention of killing her. He struck her four times on the head and left her unconscious. Mutikani covered her bleeding head with a pillow and ransacked the house and took a laptop, cellphone and money.

He then locked the doors and main gate and left for Harare. Some neighbours, who inquired after noticing that Gill was not being seen as usual, found her body four days later.

Mutikani stayed in a lodge in Harare before leaving for Masvingo where he allegedly bought three beasts using part of the money.

He sold the cellphone in Masvingo and the laptop in Beitbridge before illegally leaving the country for Mozambique. From there he proceeded to Malawi.

The court heard that Mutikani returned from Malawi on February 2 in 2012 and handed himself to police in Nyamapanda.

A neighbour, Mr David Llewellyn Mason, said he and other members of the House Owners' Association in Suburbs had to cut padlocks using a bolt cutter to check inside Gill's house and found her decomposed body. Mutikani was represented by Mr Nduduzo Dube of Dube, Mguni Legal Practitioners.