News / Regional
Woman jailed for killing abusive husband
11 Jul 2015 at 08:35hrs | Views
A 48-year-old Insuza woman from Masai Village has been sentenced to 25 years behind bars for poisoning her "abusive" husband by lacing his beer with a potent garden pesticide, the Chronicle reported.
Simangaliso Tshuma pleaded not guilty to murder and offered a limited plea to culpable homicide.
She was convicted of a murder charge in connection with the death of her husband Misheck Sethi Nyathi, 52, in 2012.
It is reported that on March 25, 2012 shortly after 7PM, Nyathi bought a bottle of opaque beer at Matwasa Bottle Store in Insuza.
He went home and drank the beer together with his wife, but they did not finish it as they retired to bed.
The court heard that on the following morning, Tshuma woke up and laced the beer with the garden pesticide in the absence of her husband.
Nyathi later returned and requested for the beer which they had left the previous night.
Its is reported that soon after drinking the beer, Nyathi started complaining of stomach problems before developing a runny stomach and vomiting.
Nyathi's brother, Thomas informed his cousin, Nhlamfayo Mpofu who is also a member of the neighbourhood watch committee, about the illness.
Mpofu and Thomas became suspicious and they then decided to go to the bottle store where the beer was bought carrying the empty container.
It was then discovered that the container had a pungent smell.
On being questioned, Tshuma denied any knowledge of the poisoning.
The matter was reported to the police and investigations led to Tshuma's arrest.
According to the postmortem results, the cause of the death was organophosphate poisoning.
Simangaliso Tshuma pleaded not guilty to murder and offered a limited plea to culpable homicide.
She was convicted of a murder charge in connection with the death of her husband Misheck Sethi Nyathi, 52, in 2012.
It is reported that on March 25, 2012 shortly after 7PM, Nyathi bought a bottle of opaque beer at Matwasa Bottle Store in Insuza.
He went home and drank the beer together with his wife, but they did not finish it as they retired to bed.
The court heard that on the following morning, Tshuma woke up and laced the beer with the garden pesticide in the absence of her husband.
Nyathi later returned and requested for the beer which they had left the previous night.
Nyathi's brother, Thomas informed his cousin, Nhlamfayo Mpofu who is also a member of the neighbourhood watch committee, about the illness.
Mpofu and Thomas became suspicious and they then decided to go to the bottle store where the beer was bought carrying the empty container.
It was then discovered that the container had a pungent smell.
On being questioned, Tshuma denied any knowledge of the poisoning.
The matter was reported to the police and investigations led to Tshuma's arrest.
According to the postmortem results, the cause of the death was organophosphate poisoning.
Source - Chronicle
