A detective inspector at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe police station, Patrick Changwe, has narrated to the Lusaka High Court that he found Precious Mangesana’s body lying in a pool of blood with three cartridges 1.5 metres from her body.

He has further narrated that Precious’ body was found 15 metres from Nshinka Kaputo’s house with car keys in her hand.

In this matter, Lusaka businessman Nshinka Kaputo is charged with murdering his girlfriend, Precious, and acts intended to cause grievous harm to their daughter.

Kaputo, 34, is alleged to have shot dead Mangesana, a MultiChoice employee, on October 5 last year.

When the matter came up for continuation of trial before Lady Justice Catherine Phiri, Monday, the state made an application to visit the scene of the crime.

Once at the crime scene, Changwe a scenes of crime expert, narrated that when he arrived at the scene on the fateful night, the deceased was lying lifelessly on her right side with her face covered in blood.

“We arrived at the scene around 22:15 hours. I got a brief from the officer who was on call that night. On the left side (of the road) the lights were on for the whole stretch of houses (accused’s house is also in the same line). Then on the right side there were no houses. I observed a motor vehicle packed on the right side of the road facing South. At the rear side of the vehicle near the rear wheel, there was a body of a female person lying lifeless on its right side. The head of the deceased which was near the bumper was lying in a pool of blood. The face was also covered in blood,” he said.

Changwe narrated that after searching the scene, he discovered three cartridges approximately 1.5 metres from the deceased body.

“Whilst processing the scene I was also taking photographs. I started looking around using the lights which was there as well as light from motor vehicle to enhance the lighting system. At the back, I found three cartridges approximately 1.5 metres from the body which I picked and preserved. The distance from the house to the body was about 15 meters,” he said.

Changwe further narrated that Precious was holding her car keys and had a gun shot wound on her neck.

“As the deceased was lying, on the right hand she had car keys. Further inspecting the body I discovered that on her left side of the neck there was a gunshot wound. On the sleeve of the shirt near the elbow, there was fresh blood and the shirt had a tear. Further inspecting the body, on the stomach there was a tear and blood stains. The rear side of the vehicle where the head was, there was blood splatter,” he narrated.

“As I was inspecting I noticed that the part of the body where the deceased was lying on had dust whilst the other part was clean. To me that indicated that when the deceased fell down from the gun shot wound she did not get up. The pattern of the splatter on the bumper indicated that it was blood from her neck.”

He said after inspections, the body was transferred to UTH.

“After that we removed the body from the scene and transferred it to UTH. The motor vehicle, using the key in her hand was driven to Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe police station around 23:30 hours. I later developed the photographs which I took and before that I made a sketchplan. I later handed over the three cartridges which I picked at the scene to the dealing officer at Lusaka Division Headquarters. Other than the blood splatter on the vehicle there were female clothes in the vehicle. The clothes were wet,” he said.

Asked by the Nhinka’s defence lawyer where the deceased’s vehicle was, Changwe explained that the vehicle had already been handed over and that it was not necessary to have the vehicle at the scene because the photographs were available.

Asked why he didn’t preserve the scene till morning to carry out inspections, Changwe said there was enough light to carry out his inspection.

“The light that I used was enough for the search. I picked evidence which had potential value,” he said.

Asked whether he was aware that there was a child who was also hurt, Changwe said he was not aware.

He added that the accused was also not at the scene on the fateful night.

“What I was briefed did not include the child. I didn’t find the accused at the scene and did not speak to him,” said Changwe.

Justice Phiri adjourned the matter to May 31, 2018 for continued cross examination of the witness.