Court reduces Lira murder convicts’ sentences to 40 years
Justices Oscar John Kihika, John Mike Musisi and Cornelia Sabiiti Kakooza delivered the judgment, dismissing the appeals against conviction, but partly allowing the appeals against the sentence.
The Court of Appeal upheld the convictions for murder, aggravated robbery and attempted murder, finding that the prosecution had proved the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
LIRA - The Court of Appeal has reduced the prison sentences of three men convicted of murdering a woman and robbing her of sh65m in Lira District in 2014.
The appellants, who were convicted, are Patrick Ogwang Osinde, Andrew Saleh Ogwang, and Ramathan Ogwal.
The court reduced their sentences from 65 to 40 years for murder, from 50 to 25 years for aggravated robbery, and from 35 to 25 years for attempted murder. The sentences will run concurrently.
They were convicted over the murder of Susan Akidi Eryau, who was shot dead during a robbery at Ireda Lumumba in Lira District on January 6, 2014. Her son, Jonathan Enamu, was also shot and injured.
According to court records, the assailants stole sh65m from Akidi. The money comprised sh7m given to her husband, Francis Eryau, by a customer, and sh58m collected from their hardware shop.
The Court of Appeal upheld the convictions for murder, aggravated robbery and attempted murder, finding that the prosecution had proved the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
In their appeals, the convicts challenged the evidence linking them to the offences, arguing that the trial judge had failed to properly evaluate their alibis and other defence evidence.
Ogwang Osinde and Andrew Saleh Ogwang also challenged the sentences as excessive and argued that the trial court had failed to deduct the two years and four months they had spent on remand.
The third appellant, Ogwal, argued that the trial judge had failed to consider evidence from his defence witnesses and that prosecution witnesses had falsely implicated him.
However, the appellate justices found that the evidence of Jimmy Okao, who pleaded guilty to the offences and testified as an accomplice, was corroborated by other witnesses and circumstantial evidence.
The court noted that witnesses, Solomon Ajar and Jimmy Brown Omara, testified about meetings in which the robbery was planned and identified the appellants’ alleged roles
Regarding Ogwal’s defence, the court found that the evidence did not establish that the witnesses had fabricated the allegations against him. It also found that his alibi of playing pool at White House Hotel in Lira did not exclude his presence at the scene at the time of the offence.
An alibi is a statement by a person under suspicion in a crime stating that they were in a different place when the offence was committed.
The justices held that merely mentioning the period spent on remand was insufficient. The trial court was required to show the deduction arithmetically in the sentences imposed.
The court consequently set aside the original sentences and substituted 40 years for murder, 25 years each for aggravated robbery, and attempted murder for all three appellants, after deducting the remand period.
The justices also reviewed the compensation order. The High Curt had ordered the convicts to pay sh100m to the deceased’s family.
The Court of Appeal reduced the compensation to sh65m, the amount established to have been stolen by the evidence of the deceased’s husband.
The three appellants were ordered to pay the compensation jointly and severally to the deceased’s family.