Chivhu Woman Who Killed Her Four Daughters Convicted
The woman from Chivhu, Chikomba District in Mashonaland East Province, who beheaded her four children in 2020 to spite her cheating husband, has been found guilty on four counts of murder by High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi, reported ZimLive.
Emelda Marizani, who was pregnant with her fifth child at the time the crime was committed, murdered all her four daughters to “hurt” her husband Lameck Brande.
In her defence, Marizani argued that she was mentally unstable when she committed the murders.
But Justice Mutevedzi ruled that there was evidence proving that she planned to kill her children long before the incident.
In her statement and oral evidence, Marizani said she wanted to leave Brande “with nothing they had accumulated together”. Ruled the judge:
The accused admits in her statement and oral evidence that she killed her children to spite her husband.
She wanted to leave him with nothing they had accumulated together.
It is very unfortunate she considered her children to be part of their acquisitions.
Marizani and Brande’s marriage was reportedly on the rocks and prosecutors proved the couple had been fighting all the time.
Brande was allegedly involved in an adulterous relationship with Chelsea Bepete.
Marizani confronted Bepete who told her that she was now pregnant from a relationship with Brande.
Bepete is also alleged to have told Marizani that she was no longer loved because she was failing to bear a son.
Earlier on the day of the murders, Marizani had fought with her husband over Bepete’s issue.
She then went home where she poisoned her daughters’ drink before she cut off their heads and set the house on fire.
Marizani then took funeral policy papers for her children and surrendered herself at the police station.
It was established that the up-to-date funeral policy was for her four children which did not include herself and her husband.
The husband was also not aware of the policy.
Marizani gave birth to her fifth child while in jail. Ruled Justice Mutevedzi:
If she indeed wanted to kill herself, she had all the opportunity but she did not put more effort on that as she did with her children.
She gave herself an opportunity to live. She said she looked for a wire to hang herself.
She could have used any other alternative or would have let herself be consumed in the inferno she had started.
She was clearly afraid of the fire. It is our view that she used her children as pawns to spite her husband. She killed them thinking she will then get even with her husband and girlfriend.
The way she explained everything is shocking and it becomes difficult to accept that she wasn’t aware of what she was up to.
We accept that shedding tears is not the only way to express emotional pain. Your actions typify a woman who is heartless.
One can kill her own child but when one goes to kill four, it shows that she was determined to do so.
From the totality, we conclude that the accused failed to prove she was mentally handicapped when she killed her children. The medical evidence was totally unreliable.
It is on that basis that we are convinced that the State has managed to prove its case beyond any reasonable doubt and the accused is found guilty and convicted in all four murder counts.
Marizani will be sentenced on Friday.
More: Pindula News
