daniel chigunwe
Fidelis Munyoro
Chief Court Reporter
Cleopatra Muchisi (27) of Chitungwiza met a heart-wrenching death when she was robbed and callously flung from a moving car to be run over by other vehicles, again and again.
Now her two killers, those who threw her out of the car, have been jailed for 35 years each, for murder, and are already serving a 24 year sentence for separate armed robbery so they may well die in jail.
Lovemore Mbesa and James Maricho recently stood trial for Ms Muchisi’s murder before High Court judge Justice Gibson Mandaza, sitting with assessors Mr Remigius Jemwa and Mr Chimonyo.
The court found the two guilty and sentenced them each to 35 years in prison.
Justice Mandaza, delivering the sentence, stressed the severity of their crime.
“Cleopatra died a painful death,” he remarked. “After being robbed, she was thrown out of a moving car and run over by other vehicles. She did not deserve to die this way. Nobody does. Her life, her bright future, was stolen by an act of pure greed.”
While the pair’s confession helped bring closure, the court noted their lack of remorse throughout the trial.
Already serving 24-year sentences for a separate armed robbery, they were described as unrepentant criminals with no regard for human life.
“Robbery is a crime of violence,” Justice Mandaza observed. “And these two are unrepentant criminals. Society is a better place without them.”
The court considered both aggravating and mitigating factors in its sentence.
While the murder was not premeditated, it was carried out with ruthless indifference to life, and the punishment, Justice Mandaza noted, had to reflect the gravity of the crime.
The court heard that on August 18 of last year, Ms Muchisi had gone to Makoni Shopping Centre to find transport to the city.
Her friend, Prisca Maburutse, had accompanied her to the roadside, neither of them knowing this would be their final goodbye.
Mbesa and Maricho, posing as helpful strangers, offered Ms Muchisi a ride. But their offer of kindness hid their true intentions.
Diverting from the main road, they drove towards Borshoff Road in Ardbernie, Mbare. After robbing her of her belongings, they threw her out of their moving car in a horrifying act of brutality. Moments later, two following vehicles struck Cleopatra, leaving her to die in anguish.
Her body was later taken to Sally Mugabe Hospital, where a post-mortem revealed the cause of death to be “polytrauma secondary to a road traffic accident.”
A bright life was extinguished in an instant, the victim of heartless greed and violence. Fate, however, caught up with Mbesa and Maricho.
On September 28, one of their accomplices, Elvis Mugoni, was arrested in Epworth for armed robbery.
A CZ pistol, stolen in another crime, was recovered from him. During questioning, Mugoni implicated Mbesa and Maricho not only in the robbery but also in Ms Muchisi’s murder. Under police interrogation, the two confessed, revealing chilling details of how they had lured Ms Muchisi, robbed her, and left her to die.
Their confession helped solve what could have remained a cold case, providing some comfort to Ms Muchisi’s grieving family.
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