27 October 2009, 03:31
KathiNamibia: Eyewitness testifies about Hunter's gunshot death
Eyewitness Testifies About Hunter's Gunshot Death
Werner Menges
22 October 2009
THE prosecution this week closed its case against the five remaining suspects on trial in the High Court in Windhoek in connection with the alleged murder of professional hunter Daniel van Vuuren on the road between Outjo and Kamanjab near the end of 2006.
State advocate Lourens Campher on Tuesday closed the prosecution's case against the five men facing charges in connection with Van Vuuren's gunshot death, after presenting evidence against the five over the course of the past three and a half weeks.
With the close of the State's case, Outjo resident Willem Peter (38), who is the second accused in the case, started giving evidence in his own defence. He is set to continue facing cross-examination from Campher for a second day when the trial continues today.
Peter is on trial with four co-accused: Gert Nuxabeb (25), Jafet Nuxabeb (21), John Khamuxab (20) and Johannes Heiki (67).
The suspect who was set to be the first accused in the case, Immanuel Isako, is not in the dock before Judge Louis Muller. Isako died in custody on May 21 this year. He was 35 years old.
Isako is alleged to have fired the shot that killed Van Vuuren (43) during the evening of December 6 to 7 2006.
At the start of their trial, all of the remaining five suspects pleaded not guilty to eight charges, including counts of murder, stock theft, theft, the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and defeating the course of justice.
Some of the last evidence that Judge Muller heard in the prosecution's case included testimony from an alleged eyewitness who claimed to have seen Isako shooting Van Vuuren.
Reinholdt Sixub testified that he accompanied Isako and all the other accused, except for Heiki, when they drove with Isako's bakkie in the direction of Kamanjab on the Outjo-Kamanjab main road on the evening in question.
They stopped at one point, and there Isako shot a cow in a camp next to the road, Sixub said.
He said he, Peter, Khamuxab and Gert and Jafet Nuxabeb loaded the poached animal onto the back of Isako's bakkie.
After they had driven off, they encountered another vehicle and stopped. Van Vuuren stopped at the same spot.
SHOOTING RELIVED
Sixub claimed that at that point, having seen that Van Vuuren was about to stop, Isako had remarked to Peter: "This white man is against me, he has already made several cases against me, and this time I will kill him."
Isako and Van Vuuren started talking to each other, and he heard Isako telling Van Vuuren, who asked why he had turned around his vehicle twice, that he had bumped a kudu, Sixub told the Judge.
When Van Vuuren went to look at the back of the bakkie and saw that it was a cow and not a kudu that had been loaded onto the vehicle, he said, in Afrikaans, "never mind", and turned to walk back to his own bakkie, Sixub related.
He said at that point Isako asked Peter for his gun, but Peter instead took Sixub's younger cousin, who was also with the group, and ran away.
"The white man was walking away to his car, and it was then that Isako shot him," Sixub testified.
After the shot had been fired, Van Vuuren fell to his knees on the tar road.
Isako then reloaded his rifle, Sixub said. He related that Van Vuuren asked Isako why he was reloading the gun, since he had already shot him. Isako then tried to fire a second shot at Van Vuuren, but it failed to go off.
By then, Van Vuuren had already been shot through the pelvis. That wound turned out to be fatal.
Sixub testified that Isako got Khamuxab and Jafet Nuxabeb to help him carry the wounded Van Vuuren off the road. From the side of the road, where Van Vuuren was found dead in the grass the next morning, he could hear Van Vuuren being beaten as well, Sixub claimed.
He however did not see that assault, he said.
In his own testimony Peter also told the court that Isako tried to shoot Van Vuuren a second time.
He said he felt "a bit of a shiver" when he heard Isako reloading his gun after he had fired the first shot at Van Vuuren.
Van Vuuren was on his knees on the road when Isako approached him with his rifle, Peter said: "He then goes and he points the gun between the eyes of (Van Vuuren). We all remain silent then. We only heard the gun making a (clicking) sound."
Sixub told the judge that he and the others at the scene were shocked and afraid of Isako at that point.
"We all feared the man because he had a gun with him," he said. "All of us were very much shocked when the white man was shot."
Defence lawyer Boris Isaacks is representing Peter and all of the other accused, except for Heiki, who is represented by Lucia Hamutenya.
Heiki, who is accused of having hidden stolen items at the farm where he was employed by Isako, is the only one of the accused to be free on bail.
30 October 2009, 01:28
GAHUNTERI thought so. Gunther was here (in the states) when it happened, and had to cut his trip short to return to the ranch. I hunted with Gunther in '03, but this was before Daniel came to work for him.
It's just too damn bad the SOB who pulled trigger escaped justice by dying in custody. The article did not say what he died of, but I would assume it was Aids.
What is the punishment for murder in Namibia?
