In a long awaited sentencing of a murder convict Joseph Irungu alias Jowie, today Judge Grace Nzioka has sentenced the convict to serve death sentence.
"Having read the probation report and having gone through the evidence tabled before this Court, I am convinced that a non-custodial sentence would not sufficient. I have have of course taken into account the issues of Public interest, based on everything I have said, I have ordered that the first accused person before this court being Joseph Kuria Irungu alias Jowie shall serve death sentence" ordered the Judge.
The Judge said that the prosecution's submission, invited the court to look at the aggravating factors of the murder where on September 20,2018 Monica Kimani's body was found lying on a pool of blood and that the Postmortem report proved that she died of severe injuries.
Further, the prosecution informed Court that after the commission of the offence there was attempts to conceal evidence.
Further, the prosecution invited court to pronounce death sentence as provided for by the Law.
Speaking to the pre-sentence report, the Judge said that the convict is only 33 years and that he has a young family.
According to Justice Nzioka, the objectives of a punishment should retribution to punish the offender for his actions, deterrence to prevent future offences, rehabilitation to give the convict an opportunity to be rehabilitated with a view that he can reform and finally restitution and community protection.
Justice Nzioka said that a punishment should serve a reconciliation and reintegration.
The Judge said that she had two questions to answer before arriving at the sentence; one What would be the appropriate sentence and two whether the sentence would be fair.
According to the judge, the principle of a sentence should be minimum intervention meaning that the convict must benefit from the sentence.
She also said that sentence must meet the principle of proportionality, meaning that it should not be more or less depending on the nature of the offence committed.
According to the Judge, the court should be able to give reasons of arriving at a certain sentence.
Joseph Irungu was on February 2024 convicted of the murder of Monica Kimani in September 2018 at Lemuria Garden.
In convicting Irungu, the Judge said that all ingredients of murder had been proved beyond reasonable doubt and that all the evidence and the doctrine of last seen places Jowie Irungu at the murder scene.
The Judge said that the evidence has proved that indeed Irungu murdered the deceased.
Jowie had throughout the six years murder trial hearing maintained that he never knew Monica Kimani.
This narrative was nullified by forensic examination of Jowie and Monica's phones which proved that indeed they were in constant communication over years.
The Judge concluded that the allegations by Irungu were mere denial given the fact that some witnesses including Monica's brother positively identified him as having been Monica's friend whom they used to meet in her house.
Video evidence of Jowie Irungu in company of Monica adduced in court also disqualified Irungu's narrative.