Murder convict wants to appeal 20-year sentence

A man, who was convicted in 2013 for stabbing a Namibian Defence Force lance corporal 14 times to death, is seeking leave from the High Court to appeal his 20-year sentence in the Supreme Court.

The 42- year- old Cornelius Ganuseb’s appeal hearing was scheduled to take place yesterday before acting Judge Petrus Unengu but could not materialise.

According to State prosecutor Ethel Ndlovu, Ganuseb is one of the inmates who are on lockdown at the Windhoek Correctional Facility. The court postponed the hearing to 14 October.

In May 2013, Ganuseb, a construction worker at the time, was convicted and sentenced over the killing of John Links (28) outside a Gobabis bar on the evening of 3 June 2010.

Links died after being stabbed 15 times in the chest, following an argument over access to the pool table at the bar.

According to an autopsy report provided to the court, Links died from two stab wounds to his chest. He was also stabbed on his head, right shoulder, four times in his neck, and three times in his abdomen.

A home-made knife with a blade that is about 16.5 centimetres long was alleged to have been the murder weapon.

At the start of his trial, Ganuseb denied guilt. Although he admitted to stabbing Links twice in the chest, he was allegedly not responsible for his death. However, witnesses testified that Ganuseb did indeed stab Links twice but after he fell to the ground, he proceeded to stab him repeatedly without heeding the efforts of witnesses telling him to stop.

At the time, Judge Kato van Niekerk ruled that the attack on Links was a vicious one, as no less than 15 wounds were inflicted.

In her verdict, she rejected Ganuseb’s version and noted that according to eyewitnesses who testified during the trial, Ganuseb was the only person who stabbed Links that evening.

While imposing the 20- year sentence, Van Niekerk said the court could not ignore in 2002 that Ganuseb had served a sentence of four years imprisonment for a previous conviction for housebreaking with intent to steal, and theft.

This did not deter you from committing the crime in the present murder case, according to Van Niekerk.