Lobatse High Court Judge Onkemetse Tshosa has sentenced Matshediso Ntwaagae to twelve years imprisonment for having murdered her boyfriend, Pule Letota, by hacking him with an axe.
The judge also ordered that two months and seven days that she had already served be deducted from the sentence.
Sentencing Matshediso, who looked calm and unremorseful, Tshosa said that he had reached the decision to sentence Matshediso to twelve years imprisonment after considering all the facts rose by her attorney, Shame Taimu, that his client was a first offender who had not had any brush with the law before the current incident.
Tshosa also said that he had considered that the two were drunk at the time of the incident, which he said was an extenuating factor.
Judge Tshosa, however, dismissed submission by Taimu that there were exceptional extenuating circumstances in this case.
He said that the pathologist who gave evidence in the matter had told the Court that he had found eight deep wounds on the deceased’s body.
After the sentence, Matshediso tried to duck photographers by covering her face with a cloth as she was led to a waiting police car.
Meanwhile, the deceased’s brother, Nelson Letota left the Court a disappointed man.
He said that although he knew that she would not be hanged for the murder of his young brother, he had expected a stiffer sentence.
“I had thought that he will sentence her to at least 20 years and not twelve. I am deeply disappointed,” he stressed.
Nelson said that what angers him much is the fact that the two had been lovers for only three weeks when he was hacked to death.
”This angers me very much as I do not understand why she could have done this to a person she had been in love with for only three weeks,” he said.
