A ZIMUNYA man who fatally hit another patron with a brick
on the head during a bar scuffle in 2012 when he was still a juvenile walked
home a free man last week after a Mutare High Court judge slapped him with a
wholly suspended jail term.
Tendekai Mukwindidza was found guilty of murder as defined
in Section 47 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act Chapter
9:23 when he appeared before Justice Isaac Muzenda.
He was sentenced to three years imprisonment, wholly
suspended for five years on condition that he does not commit a similar offence
in the next five years.
In suspending the sentence the court noted that the accused
committed the crime when he was still a minor. The judge also noted that the
matter had dragged for years without being tried and had the accused person
being convicted back then when he was still a minor he could have been taken to
a rehabilitation centre.
It was the State’s case led by principal public prosecutor
Ms Jane-Rose Matsikidze that the accused and the deceased were not related but
they resided in the same village.
“On September 21, 2012 the two were both at Garura Business
Centre and the accused was watching a game of draught with his friends.
‘‘The deceased who was apparently drunk approached the
accused and his friends and started asking questions which were duly answered.
“When the deceased continued asking the same questions the
accused and his friends became exasperated and left for a different bottle
store.
‘‘The deceased followed them again and started demanding
that the accused and his friends buy him beer but no one complied. Infuriated
by the negative response the deceased began assaulting the accused and his
friends.
‘‘The suspect then picked up a half brick which was lying
on the ground and hit the deceased on the head. He died on the spot,” said Ms
Matsikidze.
Among other agreed facts between the defence counsel and
the State, it was noted that the deceased died because of head injuries he
sustained during the attack and a post-mortem concluded that death was due to
severe head injury.
The parties also agreed that the accused person acted
negligently in his conduct owing to his youthfulness and poor sense of
judgement which caused the death.
However, Justice Muzenda despised the deceased’s behaviour
which he said was rowdy and provocative, resulting in the scuffle which turned
tragic. Manica Post
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