A THIEF who pretended to be a lawyer and extensively cited instances of case law to defend himself has been convicted.
Godknows Manduna (23) of Mzilikazi suburb, a self- actor, appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Mr Lesigo Ngwenya who convicted him of theft.
“The accused was asked to submit his closing submissions but instead he submitted an application for discharge at the close of the State case. Manduna argued that his right to a fair trial was infringed. The trial will be concluded as the court tried to help him at every stage but he refused to be helped. In all circumstances the court is of the opinion that all essential elements have been satisfied and finds Manduna guilty as charged,” said Mr Ngwenya.
When Manduna was asked if there were any mitigatory factors, he said: “I will not answer any question in respect of mitigation. It is my constitutional right to remain silent, I made an application that the magistrate should recuse himself but he refused to do so. l would rather remain silent and not reply any question from the court.”
Mr Ngwenya remanded the matter to tomorrow.
“The matter is to be remanded to Friday in order to give Manduna a chance to compose himself and that we may proceed with mitigation,” said the magistrate.
Mr McLean Ndlovu for the State said sometime this year at around 12 noon, the police received a tip off from the public that there were groceries believed to be stolen kept at Manduna’s house.
“On the same day the police went to Manduna’s place of residence and found his wife. They introduced themselves to her and asked to search the house. They broke a padlock to Manduna’s bedroom because he was not available to give them keys to the room,” he said.
While taking the wife to the station, they saw Manduna near St Columba’s High School and he immediately started running away. The police managed to apprehend him. Chronicle
0 comments:
Post a Comment