A former law student who bludgeoned his friend to death with a dumbbell and cut off his genitals had acted with the direct intent to kill and was guilty of murder, a Pretoria High Court judge found on Tuesday.
Acting Judge J Vilakazi convicted Lebogang Frank Mohlakoana (23) on charges of murder and attempting to steal the car of his friend, William Henry Thomas, in May 2005.
Police discovered the naked Thomas in a pool of blood in his lounge and his private parts tucked away under a dressing table in his bedroom after Thomas’s neighbours alerted the police and prevented Mohlakoana from escaping.
Mohlakoana denied guilt on the murder charge, claiming he had acted in self-defence after Thomas made unwelcome sexual advances and tried to attack him with a knife.
He testified that he was so ”shocked and horrified” about his friend’s death that he could not even look at photos of the bloody murder scene. He claimed to have ”thrown around” his victim’s genitals because he was ”in shock” and did not know what to tell the police.
Vilakazi, however, rejected Thomas’s claims of innocence. He was prepared to give Mohlakoana the benefit of the doubt that he had acted in self-defence the first time he hit Thomas with the dumbbell, but his victim was thereafter rendered defenceless and bleeding and could not have posed any further danger.
He said it was clear that Mohlakoana became the aggressor after the first attack. When Thomas was lying bleeding and defenceless on a sofa, he grabbed the man’s genitals and severed them — this could not possibly have been an act of self-defence.
As if this were not enough, he dealt Thomas several further blows with the dumbbell, as a result of which Thomas collapsed and probably died on the spot.
Vilakazi said the only inference that could be drawn from all of the evidence, including forensic evidence about Thomas’s injuries, was that Mohlakoana had assaulted the man with the direct intention to kill him after their relationship soured.
The trial was postponed to June 19 for a pre-sentencing report by a social worker. — Sapa