By ETAMBUYU SANG’ANDU –

A POLICE officer has testified how he stopped two brothers, accused of murdering their mother, at a police check point with a vehicle that had blood stains.
Aaron Banda was testifying in the case in which Emmanuel Katongo and his 17-year-old brother are accused of murdering their mother, Ethel Gondwe, and causing grievous harm to their father, Emmanuel Katongo senior, on April 26, this year.
Mr Banda 31 told High Court Judge Chilombo Phiri that he was on night shift duty along the Kitwe-Ndola dual carriage way when he stopped a vehicle around 04:30 hours, being driven by the juvenile offender who failed to produce a driver’s licence.
Mr Banda said when he checked the car, he noticed that the fender was depressed and that on closer inspection, noticed blood stains on the door handles and the accused persons informed him that the blood was from a goat they had carried.
“I opened the rear door on the left side, where I found more blood stains on the seats, the door and the floor of the car and I was informed that they had put the goat on the car seat.
“When I asked where the owner of the car was, they told me that the owner was home. I then asked them to call him so that he could come and explain what really happened but they said they did not have air time on their phones,” he said.
Mr Banda explained that the accused persons asked to be allowed to buy air time from the nearby kiosk but that they left and never went back.
Another witness, Chisha Yambala, testified that around 01:00 hours on the same day, he saw someone hitting an object at the neighbour’s before carrying it behind the house.
The witness said he heard noise coming from the accused persons’ house and when he peeped through the kitchen window, saw the person and that he later learnt that it was the body of the deceased that had been carried away. Hearing continues.