Makeni murder accused acquitted

By CHINTU MALAMBO THE Lusaka High Court was yesterday turned into a funeral home as a Makeni woman Jaqueline Mwiindwa was acquitted of a murder charge.

Relatives of both the accused and deceased wept as judgement was passed.

This is in a matter in which Mwiindwa was facing a charge of murdering her husband, Kofi Milumbe by running over him with a vehicle on 28th October, 2016.

High Court Judge Charles Chanda, vindicated Mwiindwa on grounds that she was arrested out of mere speculation without proper investigation by the police.

In his judgement, Judge Chanda ruled that the State had failed to prove that the accused murdered her husband.

“Tt was incumbent upon the arresting officer to tell the court the basis on which he arrested the accused. In other words, he merely drew an inference that the alleged motor vehicle may have hit the deceased instead of conducting thorough investigation,” he said

Judge Chanda said the case before him was unique because he did not just hear but he personally moved to the crime scene and was therefore able to see and follow how the events of that fateful night could have unfolded, as revealed by the witnesses.

Judge Chanda said he relied on the testimony of the pathologist who revealed that the fractures of the deceased could only have been sustained if he was run over by a fast moving vehicle and he would not have been able to walk on his own.

He however, said that the 11 witnesses discounted the probability of the deceased being run over by the accused as they saw him hold on to the vehicle at several points and at same instance, he was able to walk.

Judge Chanda said that even from the scenes the crime expert was unable to make a conclusion and neither did he suggest that the accused’s motor vehicle had hit the victim as he did not find any dents on her motor vehicle.

Subsequently, the court found Mwiindwa with no case to answer and acquitted her of the charge.