Werner Menges
28 April 2008
Windhoek — "SHE screamed, she was crying and she ran away."
The late Annalise Gawanas did not make it to safety, though.
Her boyfriend chased after her and threw a stone at her, it is claimed.
She fell to the ground.
Then he started hitting her with the pump he had been using to inflate the flat tyre of his car.
These were some of the last moments in the life of Gawanas, as recalled by a nine-year-old girl who testified in the trial of Gawanas's alleged killer, Immanuel Uri-Khob (41), in the High Court in Windhoek on Friday.
Gawanas (38) died on a gravel farm road east of Okahandja during the evening between August 19 and 20 2003.
She had been beaten to death by Uri-Khob, who was her boyfriend at the time, the State is alleging.
Uri-Khob's trial started before Acting Judge John Manyarara in the High Court on Friday, when Uri-Khob pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder, while offering guilty pleas of assault on another two charges of attempted murder that he was facing.
The prosecution, represented by State advocate Sandra Miller, accepted the two guilty pleas, in which Uri-Khob admitted that he had assaulted two women, Antoinette Noabes and Katriena Rooinasie, at farm Asgard in the Okahandja district on August 19 2003.
According to Uri-Khob's defence lawyer, Ivo dos Santos, Uri-Khob assaulted the two women by kicking Noabes and kicking and hitting Rooinasie when they tried to intervene in an argument between him and Gawanas.
The child who claims to have witnessed Uri-Khob assaulting Gawanas on the evening of Gawanas's death told Acting Judge Manyarara that the first of these assaults took place at a farm that they were visiting that evening.
In his own evidence, Uri-Khob has told the court that this farm was Asgard.
That first attack took place after Gawanas had gone to lie down in the house of the people that she, Uri-Khob, the child witness and two other children were visiting at the farm, the girl related.
She said she then saw "Uncle Imms" drag Gawanas out of the house and kicking her.
He was wearing shoes at the time as he kicked her in her face and stomach, the girl testified.
According to Uri-Khob, he had found Gawanas embracing another man at the farm, and later found her talking to this man.
When he asked her what she was doing with the man, she told him not to watch over her, he said.
This answer angered him, and he then slapped her in the face, he said.
She slapped him back, and they started fighting, he said.
During this fight, he testified, he hit her on her side and on her buttocks with a pump that he had been using to inflate a flat tyre on his car.
He also kicked her, he said.
They then left the farm, but had not progressed very far before Gawanas opened the passenger's door and fell out of the car, Uri-Khob told the court.
When he helped her get back into the vehicle, he could see she was injured, he said.
They were still on their way from the farm when the vehicle got a flat tyre again, Uri-Khob said.
While he was changing the wheel, Gawanas got out of the car, walked some distance away and sat down in the road, he said.
He later found her lying there, helped her up and got her back into the car, he told the court.
He could not get the vehicle going again after that, and by the next morning he noticed that Gawanas had died.
That was not what the child witness told Acting Judge Manyarara, though.
She denied that Gawanas had fallen out of the car while they were driving from the farm.
Before Uri-Khob stopped to deal with the flat tyre, he and Gawanas had been quarrelling, she said.
After Uri-Khob had stopped the car, Gawanas got out and started running away, she said.
Gawanas was crying and screaming, she claimed.
'Uncle Imms' chased after Gawanas and threw a stone at her, the girl said.
Gawanas fell down, and Uri-Khob then beat her with the pump on her head and neck, she said.
After this, he put Gawanas back on the front seat of the vehicle, she said.
When Dos Santos put it to the girl that Uri-Khob would deny having thrown a stone at Gawanas or having beaten her with the pump, she replied: "He did throw her, and he did beat her."
The pump was found hidden under a bush some 30 metres from the vehicle after the Police had been summoned to the scene on the morning of August 20 2003, the Police officer who investigated the case, Detective Warrant Officer Rheinhardt Maletzky, told Acting Judge Manyarara.
He said Gawanas was lying on the front seat of Uri-Khob's bakkie, covered with a blanket.
Her upper body was naked when the blanket was removed, Maletzky said.
According to Uri-Khob, he had placed the pump under the bush because he got a fright when he saw what condition Gawanas was in.
According to a forensic report that is part of the evidence in the trial, blood found on the pump was of the same blood group as Gawanas's.
Gawanas died as a result of blood loss, medical doctor Elizabeth Shangula told the court.
She said she found Gawanas's whole body covered with bruises and abrasions when she performed an autopsy on her.
Gawanas also had a linear skull fracture, and three of her upper front teeth had been knocked out, she said.
"Excessive force" had been used when these injuries were caused to her, the doctor said.Uri-Khob is set to continue with his testimony today. He is free on bail.
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