For being guilty of stabbing her neighbour, namesake and fellow housewife, Mrs. Stella Godwin, to death during an argument, Justice Raliat Adebiyi of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, yesterday sentenced Stella Gilbert, a 36-year-old housewife, to death.
The judge found her guilty of a one count charge of murder brought against her by the Lagos State government. Stella had stabbed Stella to death during an argument on June 22, 2013 at No. 59, Ojora Street, Ajegunle, Lagos. The offence contravened Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos 2011.
While delivering the judgment yesterday, the judge held that the prosecution proved the murder case against the defendant with overwhelming evidence that during a fight with her neighbour, the defendant stabbed the deceased to death in the chest with a knife, adding that the defendant herself confessed that she only stabbed the deceased once. The knife was also tendered as exhibit.
Justice Adebiyi further held that the defendant’s testimony contradicted her confessional statement. “The defendant testimony was that she was attacked by the deceased, and it amounted to self-defence. She did not prove that she was in a free-for-all when she stabbed the deceased. From the evidence, the fight took place in a room, though no evidence was given of the size of the room, it could not have been a very large room. The evidence was that the deceased and defendant lived in a house consisting of rooms occupied by families, popularly called ‘face me I face you’. Read more