A 30-year-old
Mutare man, Phillip Chinhara, who last year grisly murdered his employer
before raping her corpse, was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment
when he appeared before High Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe.
The court heard that on April 14 last year, Chinhara, who was
employed as a part-time gardener, fatally stabbed his employer Maria
Spanos after breaking into her bedroom through the roof at night and
later raped her lifeless body.
In passing sentence, Justice Hungwe said Chinhara’s moral blameworthiness was extremely high, adding that he deserved to hang.
He said had it not been for the procedural aspects under the new
Constitution which requires the State to make known its intentions to
seek for a death sentence on the commencement of trial, he was going to
impose the death sentence.
Circumstances into the matter were that on April 14 last year at
number 5 Miles Avenue Yeovil in Mutare, Chinhara hatched a plan to steal
his employer’s safe which was inside her bedroom.
Armed with a kitchen knife, Chinhara climbed through the roof and
removed the roof tiles to gain entrance into Spanos’ bedroom in the
middle of the night.
While inside the bedroom, he stabbed Spanos in the face and neck several times, killing her instantly.
He then dragged the safe out of the house and took it to a nearby stream after failing to find the keys.
Chinhara later returned to the house and sexually violated the
deceased’s corpse before looting various household properties which he
hid at his cottage.
The offence was discovered the following morning by Spanos’ son, George, and police detectives.
Investigations then led to the arrest of Chinhara after he was given away by his shoeprint inside Spanos’s bedroom.
Upon arrest, Chinhara admitted to the heinous crime and led police to his cottage where he had stashed his loot.
No comments:
Post a Comment