Deaf Man Who Killed Uncle With Wheel Spanner Gets Community Service

A 36-year-old deaf man from Eastview, Harare, has been given 420 hours of community service after killing his uncle with a wheel spanner. The attack followed a dispute in which the uncle discouraged the man’s girlfriend from marrying him because of his hearing impairment.

Fanuel Masora was sentenced to 36 months in prison, wholly suspended on condition that he complete 420 hours of community service.

The High Court convicted him of culpable homicide, not murder.

On 5 January 2014, in Eastview Phase 4, Masora struck his uncle, Magijo Masora, four times on the head with a 2.2kg wheel spanner while he was asleep. A post-mortem found the cause of death was polytrauma to the head and blunt force trauma.

Masora, represented by Obey Shava, pleaded not guilty to murder. He argued that the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act had not been made available in sign language, so it had not been brought to his notice, or to the wider deaf community’s, and therefore did not apply to him. The court rejected that defence.

He pleaded guilty to culpable homicide, saying his uncle had provoked him to the point of losing self-control, exacerbated by his inability to hear or speak.

The court heard that the dispute stemmed from Masora’s relationship with his former girlfriend, whom he had hoped to marry.

On the afternoon before the killing, the three met to discuss problems in the relationship. The uncle, who interpreted in sign language, spent most of the meeting speaking to the woman in Shona. He told her that “the hearing and the deaf cannot be together”.

Masora said he felt excluded and suspected his uncle was attracted to his girlfriend.

That evening, after both men had gone to bed, Masora got up, fetched the spanner and struck his uncle four times. He then carried the body 17 metres to an unfinished house and cleaned it of bloodstains.

Psychologist Professor Lincoln Hlatshwayo told the court that a deaf person’s conceptual understanding can be limited by communication gaps.

He said Masora, who left school at Form 2, had the mental capacity of a Grade 3 or 4 pupil.

High Court judge Justice Emilia Muchawa ruled that the accused had no intention to kill but was provoked into a sudden and total loss of self-control.

“Section 239 of the Criminal Law Code provides that provocation may be a partial defence to murder where a provoked person does or omits to do anything resulting in the death of a person, shall be guilty of culpable homicide if, as a result of the provocation, he or she does not have the intention or realisation referred to in s. 47,” said Justice Muchawa.

“Due to this, the deceased, who uttered that ‘the hearing and the deaf cannot be together’, became the recipient of all the accumulated anger and frustration of the deceased’s entire life. He could not dissipate his anger through verbal arguments or shouting.

“The accused is found guilty of culpable homicide as defined in s. 49 of the Criminal Law Code.”

He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, with one year suspended for good behaviour and the remaining two years suspended on condition that he complete 420 hours of community service.

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