On 6 March 2020, the applicant and his wife Nyasha Mudzimu had a fight in their bedroom. Neighbours intervened after hearing screams. The fight resumed after neighbours left, and the deceased fled from the bedroom with the applicant pursuing her. The deceased fell down and the applicant continued to attack her while she lay on the ground. The deceased sustained serious head injuries and was hospitalised from 7 March to 6 April 2020, when she died. The post-mortem report revealed severe head injury, intra-cerebral haemorrhage, head swelling and body bruises, with cause of death being head injury. The applicant admitted chasing the deceased and that they fought, but claimed she sustained the fatal injury when she fell and hit her head on hard ground, not from the assault itself. He pleaded not guilty to murder but offered to plead guilty to culpable homicide. The High Court convicted him of murder with constructive intent under s 47(1)(b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act) and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment.
Leave to appeal granted against the High Court decision under judgment number HMT/45/21. No order as to costs.
For an accused to be convicted of murder with constructive intent based on inference, death due to the accused's conduct must be the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the proven facts. Where the trial court makes a specific factual finding that death could be attributed to another cause in addition to the accused's assault, the conviction of murder becomes precarious on appeal because the requisite standard for drawing an inference of guilt has not been met. The court can only draw the inference that the accused had the legal intention to kill if that is the only reasonable inference available from the facts.
The court cited Professor Feltoe's Guide to Criminal Law in Zimbabwe (2005) at p 95, noting that an accused can only be convicted of murder with constructive intent if the only reasonable inference from the facts is that he had the legal intention to kill, meaning the court must decide that he must have and did foresee the possibility of death. The judgment also noted that in domestic violence cases, where there are multiple possible causes of fatal injury and no direct evidence establishing causation, speculation and conjecture cannot substitute for proof beyond reasonable doubt.
This case is significant in Zimbabwean criminal law jurisprudence as it reinforces the strict standard required for convicting an accused of murder with constructive intent based on inference. It emphasizes that where multiple reasonable inferences exist as to the cause of death, and the court itself acknowledges alternative possibilities, a murder conviction cannot stand. The case demonstrates the application of the principle that an inference supporting guilt must be the only reasonable inference available from the proven facts. It also illustrates proper application of appellate review standards in assessing prospects of success for leave to appeal applications in criminal matters.