Walvis Bay murder accused dispute alleged admissions

Two men accused of murdering a Walvis Bay resident in his home in December 2023 are saying their rights were not explained to them before they made alleged admissions to a police detective.

Defence lawyers Albert Titus and Milton Engelbrecht, representing Quanito van Vuuren (28) and Sem Moses (23), respectively, informed judge Philanda Christiaan in the Windhoek High Court yesterday that the rights of the two accused were not explained to them when they were questioned by a police officer at Walvis Bay Police Station on 31 December 2023.

Titus added that the rights that Van Vuuren says were not explained to him include the right to remain silent and the right to legal representation.

Van Vuuren is also saying he was heavily intoxicated and was not in his sound and sober senses when he was interrogated, Titus said.

Engelbrecht said according to Moses, he was intimidated by a police officer, detective senior inspector Johan Geiseb, who told him police officers would travel from Windhoek to Walvis Bay to beat him up, and that Moses is denying that he made any admissions to Geiseb.

Van Vuuren and Moses are accused of murdering Walvis Bay resident Vernon Gavin (53) in his home on 30 December 2023.

They are also accused of raping Gavin and robbing him.

The two accused both denied guilt on charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and rape when their trial started before Christiaan near the end of May this year.

In a plea statement given to the court, Moses denied that he had been at Gavin’s home at any point in time.

Van Vuuren, however, informed the court in a plea statement that he and Moses were both at Gavin’s home on 30 December 2023.

Van Vuuren denied that he assaulted Gavin, who is alleged to have died due to suffocation, but admitted that he stole a cellphone, a tablet computer and caps from Gavin’s house.

Gavin was found with a piece of cloth stuffed into his mouth and with his feet tied together.

Geiseb testified yesterday that the police traced Gavin’s cellphone to a house in the Kuisebmond area of Walvis Bay, where it was found in the possession of a police officer a day after the discovery of Gavin’s body.

The policeman reported that he had bought the cellphone from someone, and the person who sold the phone thereafter told the police he had bought the phone from two people, whom he identified as Van Vuuren and Moses, Geiseb testified.

He recounted that Van Vuuren and Moses were found at the same house at Walvis Bay on 31 December 2023, and were taken to the police station after they had been identified by the seller of Gavin’s cellphone.

The hearing to decide whether oral statements allegedly made by the two accused will be admissible as evidence in their trial is continuing. Van Vuuren and Moses are both being held in custody.

State advocate Beata Hamunyela is prosecuting.

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