Africa-Press – Namibia. THE murder of a young teacher who died at the hands of her former boyfriend shortly after she started her working life was merciless and calculated, a judge has remarked during the sentencing of her killer.
Former agriculture ministry employee Castro Domingo committed extremely serious crimes when he killed his former girlfriend Cecilia Murotua by strangling her at Divundu in the Kavango East region on 11 February 2018, and then transported her body in the boot of his car to Rundu, where he buried the body in a shallow grave, acting judge Danie Small said before he sentenced Domingo in the Oshakati High Court on Thursday.
Domingo (36), who has been in custody for three years and 10 months, was sentenced to 28 years’ imprisonment on a charge of murder and a concurrent jail term of three years on a count of attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice.
Small said he had no doubt that Murotua (25), who was a teacher in her first post at a school following her graduation, was killed because she chose not to continue a relationship with Domingo.
The judge said Domingo elected to commit the crimes rather than to accept Murotua’s choice and move on with his life.
Murotua was strangled in her bedroom at the school where she was employed, after Domingo had driven from Rundu to Divundu, ostensibly to visit her.
After she was reported missing, a Valentine’s Day gift package which Domingo had given her was found in her room.
In the judgement in which Small convicted Domingo at the end of November, he recounted that according to one of the prosecution’s witnesses, who said Murotua was his girlfriend at the time of her death, she was talking to him on the telephone at about 02h37 on 11 February 2018 when he heard her screaming and it sounded like she was being attacked.
He said he phoned the police at Divundu and reported the incident to them.
The police questioned Domingo at Rundu later that day. On the next day, Domingo broke down in tears and showed the police where he had buried Murotua in a shallow grave.
During his trial, he claimed he throttled Murotua to show her how it felt after she had first grabbed his neck and strangled him. He also claimed she had been killed by accident.
Small found his version of what he said had happened between him and Murotua to be highly improbable. The judge said according to the testimony of a medical doctor who carried out an autopsy on Murotua’s body, it appeared that an arm had been pressed on her throat and it would have taken between four and 10 minutes to cause her death.
“This was not a crime that was committed in the blink of an eye like for example one fatal gunshot,” Small said.
“It took time and was therefore calculated and merciless,” he commented. “One could not even begin to fathom the fear and terror [Murotua] went through while being killed in this manner.”
Deputy prosecutor general Ruben Shileka represented the state during Domingo’s trial. Domingo was represented by legal aid lawyer Leonard Tjiveze.
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