Murderer in bid to appeal sentence at Supreme Court

A man convicted of the murder of his girlfriend in 2019 wants to appeal his conviction and sentence at the Supreme Court following a failed High Court bid.Derick Januarie was found guilty four years ago of murdering his girlfriend, who he stabbed to death with a knife during a fit of rage.The application for leave to appeal at the Supreme Court was heard on Monday by judges Dinah Usiku and Claudia Claasen.The application for leave to appeal follows a failed appeal against his sentencing and conviction in the High Court in Windhoek in January.Deadly angerJanuarie was sentenced on 6 June 2019 in Rehoboth&#039;s Regional Court to 18 years behind bars for the murder of his girlfriend. She died on 1 January 2019 on a farm in the Nauchas area.The post-mortem examination determined that the deceased was stabbed once in the chest and once in the neck with a knife.January&#039;s defence was that he acted in a state of non-pathological automatism, claiming he did not remember what happened.He pleaded not guilty, arguing that he had "no control over my actions. I couldn&#039;t tell right from wrong. It was not my intention to kill her." He told the court: "The deceased was my girlfriend. I found out she was unfaithful and that she didn&#039;t want to see me anymore."The state argued that Januarie already knew about her alleged infidelity before the attack, and that he could therefore not have been so emotionally overwhelmed if he had already been aware of it.Grounds for appealJanuarie claims the magistrate who sentenced him in 2019 made two mistakes.Magistrate Alexis Diergaardt rejected Januarie&#039;s claim that, due to his emotional state, he could not control his actions.In her ruling, Diergaardt also referred to the testimony of a certain Willem Jansen, despite the fact that he was never a witness in the case. In a letter to the High Court, Diergaardt admitted that she had made a mistake.NoIn September 2019, the High Court appeal application was dismissed.The court found that January&#039;s claim of non-pathological automatism failed because there was insufficient evidence to support it.Further, that although there were irregularities in the judgment in terms of the magistrate&#039;s reference to a witness who did not testify in the case, this had no fundamental influence on the merits of the case or the judgment .The court emphasised the seriousness of the offense because domestic violence has become a serious problem in Namibia.The judges therefore found that the sentence was appropriate and that the magistrate made no mistakes in the sentencing.– kristien@republikein.com.na

Murderer in bid to appeal sentence at Supreme Court

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-15

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Murderer in bid to appeal sentence at Supreme Court

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-15

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