The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
A 23-YEAR-OLD Nyazura security guard who whipped a robber to death has been spared jail after getting a suspended three-year sentence.
The sentence follows Richard Chakabvira’s conviction on his own guilty plea to the culpable homicide charge he was facing.
Chakabvira was slapped with a three-year jail sentence which was suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour by Mutare High Court judge, Justice Hlekani Mwayera.
Chakabvira had pleaded not guilty to murder when he first appeared in court.
The murder charge was later dropped and this time, Chakabvira pleaded guilty to the fresh culpable homicide charges.
Ms Jane-Rose Matsikidze prosecuted.
The court heard that Chakabvira, a security guard of Valley Inn Food Outlet in Nyazura, was on night duty on May 19, 2019 when an unidentified deceased person approached the food outlet and started breaking window panes and doors with the intention of stealing.
“When Chakabvira noticed what was going on, he took a wooden stick and assaulted the deceased once on the back of the head, his back and on his thighs.
“Chakabvira proceeded to pluck off a guava tree branch and used it to hit the deceased several times. When he discovered that the deceased was now weak, Chakabvira stopped assaulting him.
“The deceased fell to the ground and Chakabvira dragged him for a distance of about 50 metres away from his workplace. He left him on the roadside,” said Ms Matsikidze.
At around 6am the following morning, Chakabvira went to check on the deceased. That is when he discovered that the man had not moved an inch and was laying motionless.
This prompted Chakabvira to call the food outlet’s manager, Nyasha Nyabinde.
Nyabinde rushed to the scene and discovered that the man was already dead.
Thereafter, he called the police. They attended the scene and arrested Chakabvira.
A post mortem conducted at Rusape General Hospital concluded that the death was a result of a depressed skull and the blunt force that had been put to the head.
