By Chisomo Phiri
Lilongwe Senior Resident Magistrate Court on Wednesday sentenced 19-year-old Rashid Yohane to 14 years imprisonment for stealing a laptop, and killing a housemaid in a mistaken identity.
Through Assistant Superintendent Richard Kandeya, the court heard that the convict was on bail when police recovered from him K900,000 out of the K970,000 he stole from his workplace at Bypass in the capital.
Kandeya said angered with his arrest, Yohane planned to revenge by targeting his boss’s wife.
He said the convict made all efforts and traced his employer’s house in area 36 where around 10:00 hours he entered the house and stabbed the housemaid severely with a pair of scissors mistaking her for his boss’s wife who was away at the time.
The state paraded three witnesses in court after Yohane pleaded not guilty and all testified against him.
The convict asked the court for leniency as he is yet to face murder charge and that he is already serving a three year jail term for stealing K970,000 but Kandeya objected and asked court to give a stiffer sentence saying the convict planned to commit the offence and an innocent life was lost in the process .
Senior Resident Magistrate Shukran Kumbani then went ahead and delivered a 14 years imprisonment to deter other would be offenders.
Yohane hails from Mujini Village Traditional Authority(T/A) Tambala in Dedza District.
