THE High Court has sentenced a Leribe teenager to 10 years’ imprisonment for fatally stabbing a man he accused of attempting to kill his father.
Justice Itumeleng Shale, sitting in the Northern Division of the High Court at Tšifa-li-Mali in Leribe, also granted the offender the option to compensate the deceased’s family M80,000 in lieu of serving a custodial sentence.
The sentence was imposed on Basia Letuka of Ha Lebona after he pleaded guilty to culpable homicide. The charge had initially been murder but was reduced following his guilty plea.
In delivering judgment, Justice Shale said the option of compensation arose from an agreement reached between the two families during mediation facilitated by the Crown and the defence. The court ruled that Letuka may avoid imprisonment by paying M80,000 to the deceased’s family in monthly instalments over 12 months.
Letuka, who was 18 at the time of the offence, admitted to stabbing 40-year-old Kotia Lebona, also of Ha Lebona, to death with an Okapi knife during an altercation at a public bar in Hlotse on 4 October 2018.
The court heard that the incident followed a heated dispute between the deceased and the accused’s father. Evidence showed that Letuka took it upon himself to retaliate, at tacking Lebona at a tavern near the Hlotse taxi rank.
In mitigation, defence counsel, Advocate Bolane Qothelo, appealed for leniency, arguing that Letuka was a first-time offender who had shown genuine remorse. He said the accused was youthful at the time of the offence, had been under the influence of alcohol, and had pleaded guilty, saving the court the time and expense of a lengthy trial.
