An 18-year-old Chivi teenager, who fatally stabbed a bar patron, has been sentenced to a wholly suspended two-year prison term.
High Court judge Justice Christopher Dube-Banda gave Brighton Chiwava the benefit of the doubt and suspended his two-year sentence on condition of good behaviour.
Chiwava appeared in court facing a murder charge for killing Doubt Matimbe in Tavagadza village in Headman Chipindu’s area on May 15 last year.
He pleaded not guilty and offered a plea of culpable homicide, which the State accepted.
According to the State, Chiwava and Matimbe were among patrons at Mashayamhanda Bottle Store at Sese business centre when Matimbe vomited on the counter, resulting in a misunderstanding with the bar attendant, Stanford Tagarira.
Matimbe produced a knife and stabbed Tagarira once on the right shoulder and left the scene.
Chiwava and Tagarira pursued and caught up with Matimbe, who threatened to stab Chiwava.
Chiwava then produced a knife and stabbed Matimbe once on the left side of the chest and he died on the spot.
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A post-mortem report showed that the cause of death was injuries inflicted by the accused.
In his ruling, Justice Dube-Banda said facts showed that Chiwava was under threat of an unlawful attack, adding that the means used to avert the attack were unreasonable and disproportionate in the circumstances.
“He stabbed the deceased on the chest, which houses vital organs of the human body. In stabbing the deceased in the manner he did, a reasonable man placed in the same circumstances as the accused would have foreseen the possibility of death and would have guarded against it.
“The conduct of the accused shows that he fell below the reasonable person standard. The accused ought, as a reasonable man, to have foreseen the death of the deceased and guarded against it.
“The accused was negligent and it was his negligence that led to the death of the deceased. The court is satisfied that the State’s concession was properly taken.”
He dismissed the murder charges and found Chiwava guilty of culpable homicide.
The judge considered the applicable sentencing principles and juxtaposed them with the circumstances of the case and the personal circumstances of the accused.
Justice Dube-Banda said the accused was 18 years old at the time he committed the crime, adding that his father was deceased and his mother had remarried.
He said the accused was the last-born in a family of three and stayed with his maternal grandmother. The judge said Chiwava was defending himself against a knife-wielding 33-year-old man, who was the aggressor.
“Youthfulness under certain circumstances can be regarded as a mitigatory factor. Young people sometimes do things without appreciating the consequences that may follow upon their deeds,” he said.
“This was not a premeditated attack. It was a justified pre-emptive strike that went, to some extent, disproportionately wrong. This court will not lose sight of the fact that the deceased was stabbed once.”
