Kudakwashe Mahachi appeared at the Bulawayo Tredgold Magistrates courts charged with the crime of theft.
Prosecutor Karen Gundani said Mahachi, who stood before magistrate Maxwell Ncube, is alleged to have snatched and damaged his sister’s iPhone XR smartphone on 13 June as part of concerted efforts to destroy evidence nailing him for purportedly scalding his four-year-old son with boiling water.
According to the State, , Kudakwashe Mahachi unlawfully took the iPhone XR cellphone with a Econet sim card knowing that Meline Mahachi was entitled to own, possess or control the property or realising that there was a real possibility that Meline Mahachi might be deprived ownership or control of the smartphone.
Circumstances are that Meline Mahachi was called by her brother, Kudakwashe Mahachi who had parked his car outside her yard and was in the company of his wife and a friend who was driving the car. Upon arrival, she found him seated in the car and he requested her phone to use it to track his cellphone which he said he had lost.
The state alleges that the accused person took the black iPhone XR smartphone from the complainant and told his driver to start the engine. The complainant asked for her cellphone back, but Mahachi refused to return it. He disembarked from the car and smashed the cellphone on the ground, saying he wanted to destroy evidence of photos and videos.
The accused person then picked up the cellphone and walked away along Taylor Road towards Makokoba Suburbs.
The complainant made a police report leading to the arrest of the accused.
The total value of the stolen phone is US$400 and nothing was recovered.
According to the State, the accused person had no lawful right to act in the manner he did.
The prosecutor requested for postponement to 5 July as the State had not yet recorded witness statements needed for the matter to proceed to trial.
