Windhoek house fire murderer faces life imprisonment

A woman convicted of murdering two people who died in a house fire in Windhoek near the end of 2022 should be sentenced to life imprisonment, a public prosecutor suggested in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

A sentence of life imprisonment for Mecthilde Karomo (34) would serve justice, deputy prosecutor general Dominic Lisulo argued during a presentence hearing before judge Claudia Claasen.

Lisulo also suggested that if life imprisonment is deemed to not be an appropriate sentence, Karomo should be sentenced to not less than 30 years’ imprisonment on each of the two murder charges on which she has been found guilty.

Defence lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji, however, proposed to Claasen that Karomo should be sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment on each of the two counts of murder, and to a jail term of four years on a charge of arson.

Siyomunji also suggested that the sentences on one of the murder charges and on the charge of arson should be ordered to run concurrently with the sentence on the other murder charge, which would leave Karomo with an effective sentence of 16 years’ imprisonment.

Claasen, who found Karomo guilty on the three charges four weeks ago, postponed her sentencing to next Friday (29 May).

Karomo was accused of starting a fire that destroyed the house of her then boyfriend, Leonard Haupindi (36), in the Okahandja Park area of Windhoek during the early morning hours of 26 December 2022.

Haupindi and Annastasia Matende (31), who were both in the house, died in the fire.

Karomo denied guilt on the charges.

During her trial, two witnesses testified that a physical altercation between Karomo and Haupindi had taken place at his house during the evening before his shack was destroyed by fire.

That fight happened after Haupindi refused to open the door of his house for Karomo, who had heard that there was a woman sleeping inside the house.

After the altercation, Karomo threatened to burn down Haupindi’s house if he and the woman in his house slept there, one of the two witnesses told the court.

According to the other witness, Karomo shouted that Haupindi would not sleep in his house and that she would burn the house down, Claasen recounted in the judgement in which she found Karomo guilty.

Karomo made a confession to a magistrate after her arrest, Claasen also noted.

She told the magistrate she demanded that Haupindi should open the door of his house after she had heard there was a woman inside, but he refused and got angry.

During an argument between her and Haupindi, he hit her on the head and a physical fight started, she said.

Karomo said she went to her house, which was next to Haupindi’s, after people had pulled her out of his yard, and overheard Haupindi referring to her as “that useless woman”, which hurt and angered her.

Karomo also told the magistrate she heard the sound of Haupindi’s door closing and thought he and the woman at his house had gone out. She then decided to set his shack on fire, she said.

After setting fire to a curtain in the shack, she returned home, put on earphones and listened to music, Karomo said.

She was later woken up by the sound of a stone falling on her roof, and then saw that Haupindi’s house had burnt down, she said.

Karomo, who is a first-time offender, did not testify in mitigation of sentence after she was convicted.

Siyomunji informed the court that Karomo’s father was ordered by the Mbunza Community Court to pay N$77 000 or 40 head of cattle as compensation over the deaths of Haupindi and Matende.

Karomo’s father paid the compensation, and that should be taken as a sign of remorse on the part of Karomo as well, Siyomunji argued.

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