Robber jailed for nine years

Yeukai Karengezeka

Court Correspondent

A robber who invaded a house in Dema where he took away US$30 000, a pistol and a motor vehicle before leaving the family tied up with ropes was yesterday sentenced to effective nine years behind bars.

Calvin Gasura (29) was jailed by Harare regional magistrate Fadzai Mutombeni after full trial.

In passing the sentence she considered the injuries that were sustained by the victims and how the complainant’s wife who was pregnant at the time was dragged. Gasura threatened to kill the complainant in front of his family and they were traumatized.

Magistrate Mutombeni also took into account that Gasura had been in remand prison for the past three years and hence has served part of his sentence.

The prosecutor Mr Kelvin Munyimi proved that on November 10, 2020 at around 7pm, the complainant Hazvinei Mutasa was standing at his gate with his two builders Mulambo Mareve and Felix Bieni when Gasura fired a gunshot and ordered them to lie down.

Gasura took Mutasa’s 7,65mm FN Browning pistol with a magazine of seven rounds and force-marched them into the yard demanding cash.

Gasura and his accomplices broke into the house using a hammer and he fired a shot and started assaulting Mutasa’s wife and Mareve using a button stick demanding cash.

He then force-marched Mutasa upstairs where he took money from the ceiling amounting to US$30 000 and surrendered it to him as well as his Samsung S 10 cellphone, Itel cellphone, CCTV Saver, and Mercedes Benz car keys.

 The court heard that Gasura took the hostages upstairs and tied their hands and legs with shoelaces.

As they were leaving, Gasura took a Toyota IST motor vehicle. Then on November 11, 2020, detectives picked information that led to the recovery of the stolen motor vehicle which was dumped in Vhera Village Chief Seke.

Then a week later, detectives received information that led to Gasura’s arrest   in Harare CBD.

Upon searching him, police recovered a stolen FN Browning pistol which was in a green cooler bag that he was carrying and only US$4 600 was recovered from Gasura.