A Woman accused of carrying out an arson attack that claimed the lives of two people in Windhoek near the end of 2022 says she was sleeping when the fatal fire occurred.
She was sleeping in her own house, close to that of her then boyfriend Leonard Haupindi, after they had been involved in a physical fight, double murder accused Mecthilde Karomo testified during her trial in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
Karomo (33) said after she was woken up by someone alerting her that her house was burning she realised the curtains in her bedroom were on fire, and when she went out of her house she saw that Haupindi's house was also ablaze.
People helped her to carry some of her furniture out of her house and to put out the flames, Karomo recounted.
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Haupindi's house was destroyed by the fire.
He and a woman who was also in his house, Annastasia Matende, were killed in the blaze.
Karomo is accused of starting the fire that claimed the lives of Haupindi (36) and Matende (31) in the Okahandja Park area of Windhoek during the early morning hours of 26 December 2022.
She denied guilt on two counts of murder and a charge of arson when her trial started before judge Claudia Claasen in April last year.
While testifying in her own defence yesterday, Karomo said she saw Haupindi, with whom she was involved in a romantic relationship, return to his house in the company of a woman on the evening of 25 December 2022.
Remarks that the woman made after seeing her indicated that she was not aware that Haupindi was in a relationship, Karomo told the court.
She also said a woman, who was one of the state's witnesses during her trial, told Haupindi to open his house so that her cousin could come out, but he refused to open the door of the house.
Karomo said after she also asked Haupindi to open his door so that the person the other woman had mentioned could come out, he got angry and began to assault her by slapping her.
She said she and Haupindi became involved in a physical fight, which neighbouring residents came to end before she went to her own house, locked her door and went to sleep.
Karomo disputed the testimony of the state's last witness in her trial, Tobias Hainyeko constituency councillor and National Council member Christopher Likuwa, who testified in December last year that she told him at the scene of the blaze that she had set Haupindi's house on fire after he had brought another woman home with him.
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Karomo also denied that she had told a magistrate, who recorded a statement that she made after her arrest, that she had started the fire.
According to the magistrate, Karomo told him she thought there was nobody in Haupindi's house when she started the fire.
Parts of the statement that she made to the magistrate did not come from herself, but were things a police officer had instructed her to say to the magistrate, Karomo said.
"I did not set the house on fire," she said.
The trial is continuing.
Karomo, who is being represented by defence lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji, is free on bail in an amount of N$3 000, which was granted to her in May 2024.
Deputy prosecutor general Dominic Lisulo is representing the state.
