Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, yesterday sentenced a 36-year-old woman, Mrs. Stella Godwin, to death by hanging for stabbing her neighbor to death.
The court presided over by Justice Raliat Adebiyi, said the prosecution proved the murder charge against the convict beyond reasonable doubt.
While delivering her judgment, the judge stated that the defendant used a knife on the deceased and explained that “by any standard, a knife is a lethal weapon.”
She said that the testimonies of three prosecution witnesses tallied with the Coroner’s report which confirmed that the deceased was stabbed in the chest.
“The chest is where the heart is. The defendant by stabbing the deceased in the chest, a very fragile part of the body, clearly intended to cause the most harm to her” she said.
“The death of the deceased occurred as a result of the grievous injury caused by the defendant. The defendant is culpable of the offence of murder.”
Justice Adebiyi said that the defendant’s testimony contradicted her confessional statement because her claim that she was attacked by the deceased only amounted to self defence.
“She did not prove that she was in free for all when she stabbed the deceased. From the evidence, the fight took place in a room, though no evidence was given of the size of the room, it could not have been a very large room.
“The evidence was that the deceased and defendant lived in a house consisting of rooms occupied by families popularly called ‘face me I face you’.
As an aside, the judge said “it was worrying that the level of violence, unnecessary animosity and death which occur amongst our citizens as a result of living together in close proximity without sufficient personal space and boundaries remain unabated.
She said there was clearly a need to improve social housing and living conditions. “The court hopes that this message will be conveyed to the necessary authorities through the prosecutors who have the responsibility to prosecute these cases and should be able to provide vital statistics.”
Meanwhile, drama ensued when the convicted Gilbert had to be dragged out of the court room for disrupting court proceedings.
