Jailed ex-Rosh Pinah manager abandons appeal

WINDHOEK, 04 JUN  – Keetmanshoop resident Pieter Farmer, who is serving a custodial sentence of 35 years after being found guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend at the southern town in November 2005, on Monday abandons his appeal process for the conviction and punishment.
Piet Farmer, 41, abandoned the appeal bid on Monday morning during a criminal appeal case of management review when a date for the hearing was being decided upon by his State-funded defence lawyer Trevor Brockerhoff and State Advocate Felistas Shikerete-Vendura.
High Court Judge Nate Ndauendapo, thereafter, ordered the withdrawal of the appeal as requested by the murder convict.
Farmer, a former manager at the Rosh Pinah Zinc Mine, made the withdrawal after Brockerhoff went through the documents of the trial and concluded that there are little prospects of success with the appeal application.
Farmer was requesting for the court to re-look into the totality of the evidence of the conviction and sentence as he felt there was some kind of misdirection by the judge during the trial and at the time of handing down the punishment.
On 23 May 2013, Ndauendapo sentenced Farmer to an effective total of 35 years’ imprisonment after he was found guilty on 10 April 2013 on three counts – murder with a direct intent to kill, possession of a firearm without a licence and illegal possession of ammunition.
Farmer’s convictions emanated from the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Dolleveria McKay, 18, in the early hours of 12 November 2005 in Keetmanshoop’s Kronlein residential area. He shot the young woman, who is also the mother of his child, in the heart with a 7.65 millimeter calibre pistol.
On the first count of murder with a direct intent to kill, Farmer was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment.
The last two counts of possession of a firearm without a licence and illegal possession of ammunition were taken together for the purpose of sentencing, and on these two counts, Farmer was sentenced to one-year imprisonment. These would run concurrently with the sentence for the primary charge.
In a written explanation of his not-guilty plea, Farmer claimed that a shot went off accidentally and inexplicably when he handed the pistol to McKay for safekeeping.
He further claimed that he did not know that the gun was loaded when he handed it to her.
After a few more minutes of quarrelling between Farmer and his ex-girlfriend, a shot rang out and State witnesses saw McKay falling to the ground.
The witnesses further testified that when they tried to approach McKay and Farmer, the convict told them in a threatening manner to stay away.
Farmer is serving his prison term at the Windhoek Correctional Facility.

NAMPA