10 years jail for suicidal killer mum
By Mashudu Netsianda
A WOMAN from Plumtree who forced her eight-year-old daughter to eat bread laced with rat poison resulting in the girl’s death before attempting to commit suicide by drinking the same substance, was yesterday sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Locardia Ranganai (40) who resides at the industrial area in Plumtree assaulted her daughter, Monalisa Chinosengwa, before forcing her to drink the poison in April 2011.
She claimed that her husband was in the habit of abusing her and their daughter resulting in her harbouring thoughts of terminating her life and that of the deceased.
She was convicted of murder with actual intent by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese.
Ranganai will serve an effective seven years after three years were suspended for five years on condition that she does not within that period commit a similar offence.
In passing sentence, the judge took into account the mitigatory factors presented by the accused person’s lawyer which prompted her to commit the offence.
Prosecuting, Chief Public Prosecutor Mrs Tariro Rosa Takuva said on April 18 in 2011, Ranganai left her home for Dryden Farm without telling anyone and she was in the company of her daughter, Monalisa.
When they arrived at the farm, the accused person laced some bread with rat poison and gave her daughter to eat.
The court heard that when the girl tried to resist, Ranganai assaulted her and forced her to consume the bread.
The girl started vomiting resulting in her succumbing to the effects of the rat poison.
“The accused person wrapped the body in a blanket and left it in the bush before she went back home and informed her neighbours,” said Mrs Takuva.
The matter was reported to the police leading to Ranganai’s arrest.
The body was taken to the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) for a post mortem examination.
A pathologist who examined the body concluded in his report that the cause of death was asphyxia, poison ingestion and assault.
In mitigation through her lawyer, Ms Marygold Sibanda of Vundhla-Phulu and Partners, Ranganai pleaded for leniency, saying she was forced into committing the offence because of physical and emotional abuse she and her daughter were subjected to by her husband. The Chronicle
