The Lusaka High Court will on January 29, next year, deliver its judgement in a matter where businessman Nshinka Kaputo is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Precious Mangesana, a MultiChoice employee, after the accused closed his defence without calling any witnesses.

In this matter, Kaputo is charged with two counts of murdering his girlfriend Mangesana and acts intended to cause grievous harm.

Kaputo, 35, is alleged to have shot dead Mangesana, a MultiChoice employee, on October 5, 2017.

It is further alleged that on the same date, Kaputo shot his daughter in the neck, an act intended to cause grievous harm.

In May, this year, Lusaka High Court Judge Catherine Phiri found Kaputo with a case to answer and placed him on his defence on both counts after noting that there was sufficient evidence on record that the accused was found with a gun in his hands and spare magazines.

She added that the gunshot wound that was found in the neck of the child was an act intended to cause grievous harm on a person.

When the matter came up for continued defence, Wednesday, Kaputo’s lawyer told the Court that his client would not bring witnesses and that he wished to close his defence.

During his defence in August, Kaputo had indicated that he would bring five witnesses to testify in his favour.

“The matter was supposed to come up for continuing of defence, however, after viewing the evidence, I am advised that he (Kaputo) does not intend to call any more witnesses and is closing defense,” his lawyer said.

Justice Phiri then ordered the State to the file written submissions by November 29 and the defence to file theirs by December 19, this year.

She indicated that judgement would be delivered on January 29, next year.

Opening his defence earlier in August, Kaputo told the Lusaka High Court that on the material day, Precious got the gun from a secret place where they used to hide it at his house and approached him outside the gate, while he was holding their daughter.

He said when he realized that Precious was holding a gun, he got scared and asked her what she was doing with it.

Kaputo said the deceased told him that she was tired of things and just wanted the two to kill themselves.

He claimed that when he noticed her tone and posture, he knew that she was about to do something, adding that at that point, he got hold of the gun as he had nowhere to run.

Kaputo claimed that Precious told him that she was tired and wanted both of them to die and end things.

“When I realized from her tone, posture and the things she was saying, I knew she was about to do something. My quickest reaction was to get closer to her and hold onto her gun. If it was in any other situation, I would have walked away, run away or found a hiding place. At that time she was saying: ‘I’m tired of things, things need to come to an end, today, we just have to kill ourselves!’ We got so close and whilst holding Naila on the other hand, I held onto her right hand where the gun was,” he said.

“Holding on to the gun, I was ensuring that it doesn’t point at me, her, but points either down or up, then the gun went off. In that instance, about two to three shots were fired and from where we were standing, some spark for the first shots that were fired must have hit the car somehow. I noticed at that point, Naila is down, Precious is also down, gun is also down and I rushed to go pick up Naila that’s when I noticed that she was bleeding from her neck. I was very scared and traumatized.”

On his daughter’s gunshot wound on her neck, Kaputo said he loved his child, had named and wouldn’t want to hurt her.

“Even when I left the house to go to the gate, there was never a thought that someone is going to get hurt,” he said.

Kaputo also denied that he was a possessive and jealous lover to the deceased, saying he supported everything that she did and she also stayed in his house.