Ex-boxer kills girlfriend, jailed 35 years

By Garikai Mafirakureva

Former Chiredzi boxer, Charles Jackson (45) was last week sentenced to 35 years over the cold blood murder of his live-in girlfriend, Ndaizivei James.

The incident happened sometime in March last year.

Jackson, popularly known as Charo in the boxing circles, pummelled his girlfriend to death over an undisclosed beerhall dispute.

Masvingo High Court judge, Justice Garainesu Mawadze handed down the long custodial sentence after it emerged that Jackson had a history of violence.

Jackson committed the gruesome murder barely two years after his release from prison on a kidnapping offence.

Justice Mawadze said the boxer deserved a deterrent sentence after it emerged that he had a knack for violence. He once kidnapped Wonder Mabika, a taxi driver in Chiredzi and robbed him, which earned him a seven-year sentence.

The court heard that on the fateful day, Jackson and Ndaizivei were on a beer-drinking binge at Chigarapasi Beerhall when they had a misunderstanding. Jackson hit his girlfriend with fists before he was restrained by some revellers.

The two eventually left the beerhall for their home where Jackson continued to beat his defenseless girlfriend with fists, booted feet and various other objects. He later used a blunt object to beat the now-deceased all over the body until she died.

After realising that he had killed his girlfriend, he vainly tried to shove a handful of tablets down Ndaizivei’s throat so that she would appear as having committed suicide. The body was taken to Bulawayo for post-mortem which concluded that Ndaizivei succumbed to multiple fractures, including broken ribs and loss of blood. News Day