Three cops to hang for murder

via Three cops to hang for murder – NewsDay Zimbabwe July 1, 2014 by Phillip Chidavaenzi

THREE police officers and a civilian who murdered a security guard during a botched armed robbery at Gletwin Farm in Chishawasha in Harare four years ago will face the hangman’s noose after High Court judge Justice Hlekani Mwayera handed down the capital sentence yesterday.

Justice Mwayera, however, said the three police officers Kudzai Madziro, Leeroy Muteyera, Ronald Sambo and their civilian accomplice Emmanuel Dolosi could appeal at the Supreme Court over the murder of Edson Manembe.

Manembe was employed as a security guard at the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s Gletwin Farm where the four wanted to steal building material.

She said although the court had considered that the quartet had spent four years in remand prison and were breadwinners, the mitigating factors were not sufficient to save them from facing the gallows.

“The court has taken into consideration Section 48 2(a) of the Constitution whether or not to impose death penalty. We have also taken into cognisance that accused two (Muteyera), three (Sambo) and four (Madziro) committed armed robbery while they were police officers who are supposed to be custodians of the law.

The courts do not tolerate cases where police officers turn into armed robbers and in this case, death sentence is appropriate,” Justice Mwayera said.

Douglas Chesa of the Prosecutor-General’s Office told the court during trial that in June 2010, the quartet, together with Clever Ndlovu, who has since passed on and Ocean Munjeri, who is still at large, hatched a plan to steal some building material at the police farm.

The gang agreed that Madziro, Muteyera, Sambo and Ndlovu would provide their service pistols, while Dolosi and Munjeri would provide getaway vehicles, a Toyota Hiace and a Vauxhall. On July 2 2010 just before 3am, the robbers stormed the farm.

They confronted two security guards manning the entrance, produced their pistols and forced the guards to lie down. They later tied the guards’ hands with shoelaces and bag handles. Dolosi then remained behind guarding the two security guards. Muteyera, Sambo, Munjeri and Ndlovu proceeded to the storeroom where the building material was stored.

According to the State, they met Peter Munzverengu who was in the chicken run and ordered him to lie down. Munzverengu screamed for help, thereby alerting Manembe who was manning the storeroom. As Manembe went to investigate, the robbers fired three shots hitting him in the cheek, chest and stomach, before fleeing the scene without stealing anything.

Manembe was taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. A police report was made, leading to the arrest of the convicts.