A 31-year-old Free State man who brutally murdered his mother chopped her body into pieces and put them in a plastic bag in Riverside, QwaQwa, was handed life in jail.
The Free State High Court has sentenced Teboho Abram Mokoena, 31, to life imprisonment for killing his mother, Modiehi Anna Khodumo, 65, and dismembering her body in June last year.
The court also slapped Mokoena (Tebogo) with a five-year prison sentence for stabbing his father, Motsumi Joseph Mokoena, with a knife several times when he tried to reprimand him. Mokoena was further handed 12 months of imprisonment for malicious damage to property.
It is alleged that June 7, 2022, Motsumi Mokoena visited the home of the deceased and discovered his son in the garage, where he was packing his mother’s remains in a plastic bag.
"When he tried to inquire about what was happening, the accused stabbed him several times," said NPA regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping.
Shuping added that police were called to the house, and they made a gruesome discovery when they found a grinder as well as human remains that had been cut into pieces in the garage. It was believed that the deceased was killed between June 5-7, 2022.
“The accused had a tumultuous relationship with his parents because of his alleged use of drugs and demanding money from them,” Shuping said.
In aggravation, the State Prosecutor, advocate Nono Mkhabela, presented three victim impact statements (VIS) to the court. The VIS was from the daughter, brother, and ex-husband of the deceased.
“The daughter stated that she could not perform at university and had to repeat a semester because of the incident, and the ex-husband said that his son took away the most innocent soul, who was not only a pillar of strength to the family but to the community,” Shuping said.
Mkhabela told the court that the accused was convicted of three serious offences that are prevalent not only in the province but in the entire country, and a common denominator of the offences is that they all have the element of violence.
She also argued that the accused exhibited no remorse for his actions, that he was clearly motivated by selfishness, a sense of entitlement, and greed, and that the court should not deviate from the minimum sentence prescribed by law, as this would send a message to would-be killers that the courts will deal harshly with them if they commit such crimes.
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