Katusabe murder: Lawyers reject forensic report

KAMPALA- Lawyers defending the suspect in the Pine Car Bond murder case on Tuesday rejected photocopies of the forensic report the prosecution submitted in court and demanded original report.

The prosecution contends that the accused who include; Mr Muhammed Ssebuwufu, a car dealer, and seven others, murdered the deceased Donah Betty Katusabe on October 21, 2015 using sticks and machetes at Pine Car Bond on Lumumba Avenue in Kampala over an outstanding Shs9m debt on a car she had bought from them.

The prosecution further states that the accused persons on the same day and place robbed the deceased of a mobile phone worth Shs300,000.

They picked her from her residence in Bwebajja on Entebbe Road and took her to their Pine Car Bond in Kampala where they allegedly killed her.

In submissions by defence lawyer, Mr Evans Ochieng before court, he queried the photocopies of forensic report from the Government Analytical Laboratory (GAL) when the investigating officer Mr Henry Peter Walya tried to identify them.

“My lord, I reject these analytical documents being admissible in court. They are carbon copies and at the tail of some of these documents, there are some ink writing with different pens,” Mr Ochieng said.

“The most important part of those documents is they are detailing the DNA and swabs as exhibits submitted for a crucial analysis. Unfortunately, the documents listed before court are photocopies,” he added.

He argued that it would be better for the prosecution to bring original copies or find an officer from GAL who can own up the documents.

In reply, the state prosecutor Mr Alex Ojok said that as a procedure, GAL sends to court stamped carbon copies and keeps the originals. He said the defence lawyers’ insistence on the original report might stall or delay the trial for another year as the lab is filled with bulky files.

The trial judge Flavia Anglin Senoga adjourned the matter to August 9 for a ruling on the defence objections.

Earlier, Dr Geoffrey Onen, who examined the blood samples collected from the scene of crime, had told court that the samples matched those of the deceased Katusabe.

“…I received exhibits of blood samples, one from the car and another from the office walls. All the blood samples had DNA profile of female origin and from the same donor,” Dr Onen told court.

“All these samples were compared with the DNA profiles got from Katusabe and they matched. My conclusion was that out of the analysis, there was extremely strong genetic evidence of composition of the deceased,” Dr Onen further testified.

Mr Muhammed Ssebuwufu, the owner of Pine Car Bond, is jointly charged with Godfrey Kayiza, Philip Mirambe, Stephen Lwanga, Paul Tasingika, Yoweri Kitayimba, Damaseni Ssentongo and Shaban Otuddu.

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