Sentencing in student pastor murder set for Thursday

WINDHOEK, 04 APR – The sentence of a Windhoek resident found guilty of stabbing his student pastor girlfriend to death in 2014, will be handed down on Thursday.

Andre Fidel Dausab, 37, was on 25 July 2017 found guilty of murder with direct intent to kill in respect of the death of Motlamme Gotaone.
Gotaone was 33 when she died at the United Lutheran Theological Seminary Paulinum Campus in Windhoek on 22 February 2014.
High Court Judge Naomi Shivute was scheduled to hand down the sentence on 15 March 2018, but could not do so as she was out of town, attending to official commitments.

On 01 March 2018, Dausab in his evidence in mitigation of sentencing asked Judge Shivute not to send him to prison, because a direct custodial sentence would ruin his life and chances of contributing to uplifting the living conditions of Namibians through his skills in electronic and computer technology.

“I want this court to impose a lenient sentence in the form of payment of a fine. I also want this court to issue an order that I am guaranteed full access to computers so that I can do business to make money and financially support my family and the family of the deceased, should I be sent to prison,” Dausab, who is a qualified computer technician, said.

He said he is prepared to pay a fine of N.dollars 1.6 million for causing Gotaone’s death if the court grants him the opportunity to do so.
Dausab now represents himself after he fired State-funded defence lawyer Brownell Uirab on 30 August 2017, just before the lawyer was about to present evidence in mitigation of sentencing before court.

He claimed the lawyer did not represent him honestly and to the best of his ability.
Shivute found that Dausab declared his intention to kill Gotaone a day before the incident when he sent her text messages threatening to kill her if she ended their relationship.

A post-mortem showed a broken knife was found stuck in the deceased’s back. She suffered 27 stab wounds all over her body. Dausab is a first-time offender with no previous criminal offences.
NAMPA