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The Sterkspruit Regional Court in the Eastern Cape has sentenced a 48-year-old man to life imprisonment for murdering a young man whom it accused of stealing his mobile phone.
According to the spokesman for the National Prosecution Authority, Luxolo Tyali, a group of men from Cathberg Village approached Mookamedi Phomane, 20, at his home on November 14, 2016 and demanded that he return a cell phone that they accused him of steal from Sipho Mphumanto.
Phomane repeatedly denied any knowledge of the phone. After a long interrogation, Mphumanto demanded to question Phomane further. He passed the police station, dropped off his friends in town, and took Phomane to an unknown location.
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“After several hours, Mphumanto returned [Phomane] to his mother. He had suffered multiple injuries to his upper and lower limbs, suggesting that he was seriously assaulted. The next day he succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, “Tyali said.
Mphumanto denied assaulting Phomane, but the State convinced the court that the only reasonable inference that could be made was that Mphumanto had planned to kill Phomane.
The court found no substantial or compelling circumstances to justify a deviation from the prescribed sentence of life in prison.
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