The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
A 26-year-old man has been slapped with a 10-year jail sentence by Mutawatawa magistrate Mr Obedience Matare for stealing an ox from Uzumba.
Admire Machipisa committed the crime with his accomplice, Kudzanai Hwingwiri, who is a ZRP constable at Support Unit Camp.
Hwingwiri is still at large.
The court heard that on May 18, 2023, the two slaughtered an ox valued at US$800 in the middle of the night.
The accused persons removed the offals and halved the unskinned carcass, which they loaded in the boot of a Nissan Sylphy and drove away unnoticed.
On May 19, at around 2 am, the two were stopped at a stop-and-search roadblock at Marembera turnoff along Murewa-Madicheche Road while Hwingwiri was driving.
Hwingwiri went out of the vehicle, pretending to head to the boot.
He insisted that his boot had problems opening.
He then switched off the engine and immediately fled from the scene.
Machipisa was arrested.
A search was then conducted and police officers recovered a police identity belonging to number 074649P Constable Hwingwiri K, a fully charged magazine of an AK 47 rifle and an unskinned beast, which had been cut into half, as well as offals that were placed in a sack.
Upon questioning, Machipisa led the police to a pen in Mutarimanja village, from where they had stolen and slaughtered the beast.
Complaint’s wife, Ms Elizabeth Gwangwadza, positively identified the carcass in the accused person’s vehicle as the one stolen from her husband.
Machipisa will, however, serve nine years after eight months were suspended on condition that he pays $2 million in restitution.
The recovered axe, ID card and magazine were forfeited to the State.
Mr Steven Malota prosecuted.
