Murder accused denied more bail

FRANCISTOWN: A man accused of murder was refused a second bite at the cherry following his application for being re-admitted to bail. Thato Mothuso is charged with one count of murder, which incident occurred in 2013.

Delivering a brief ruling on the application, Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo said it was common cause that Mothuso was once granted bail in 2016 but did not attend several court appearances when his trial commenced only to be re-arrested in 2018. Justice Nyamadzabo explained that after Mothuso missed several court appearances, it led to his matter being withdrawn from the court’s case roll with liberty to reinstate once arrested.

“The applicant’s matter was reinstated in August 2018. The court had previously made an order that the applicant’s bail should be revoked because of his conduct until his matter was finalised. In July 2018, his attorney told the court that the matter was only left with three witnesses before it was finalised. One of the State witnesses was the crime scene investigator who took photos at the crime scene.

“It was revealed that the crime scene investigator was missing some exhibits and another photo album. It was also revealed that the album and exhibits were probably misplaced when they were moved from Palapye to Selebi-Phikwe.

The crime scene investigator then left for further studies for two years. While the offence took nine years to go to trial, which is a genuine concern raised by the accused, his conduct also delayed the matter to be swiftly brought to finality after he missed several court appearances for close to two years,” Nyamadzabo said.

Concerning the missing photo album and exhibits, the prosecution and defence know what approach to take concerning that issue, said Justice Nyamadzabo.

The judge added that even if the photo album and exhibits are not located, they will not have too much bearing on the outcome of the case because the defence attorney will still have a chance to cross-examine the remaining three State witnesses. Justice Nyamadzabo then set the matter for continuation of trial on October 12.