FORMER AMA ACCOUNTANT IN COURT FOR MURDERING GIRLFRIEND

A former accountant at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Kingsley Awanga Cromwell, who allegedly murdered his girlfriend at North Kaneshie in Accra and attempted to end his life has been arraigned at the Accra Fast Track High Court on a charge of murder.
Cromwell was said to have suspected his girlfriend, Beatrice Mensah, then a secretary with the AMA, of having a relationship with a military officer and strangled her to death on November 6, 2004.
Cromwell pleaded not guilty to the charge. He is on bail granted by an Accra High Court.
Three prosecution witnesses testified last Tuesday and the case was adjourned to February 15, 2008.
The facts as narrated to the court by Ms Cynthia Lamptey, a state attorney, are that Cromwell and Beatrice were in a relationship for about four years until the incident.
She said that Cromwell, who had two wives, suspected Beatrice of having an affair with a military officer and on that fateful day informed one of his wives that he was going to kill Beatrice and then kill himself.
Ms Lamptey told the court that when Cromwell went to Beatrice’s house, he asked her to accompany him to the bedroom where he strangled her.
According to her, the landlady, Madam Susana Yemokai Owoo, became suspicious after Beatrice’s niece come to ask her (landlady) about Beatrice. The landlady used a spare key to open the door only to find Beatrice dead.
The prosecutor said the landlady then found Cromwell hiding behind a refrigerator in the kitchen and stabbed himself.
Counsel for Cromwell denied that his client was responsible for the strangulation, which a post-mortem report indicated was the cause of the death of Beatrice.
In her evidence, the landlady said he knew both Cromwell and Beatrice and that on November 6, 2004, she was at home at dawn when Beatrice spoke with her through the window and asked of her (landlady’s) health.
Madam Owoo said that Beatrice informed her that Cromwell was coming to the house so she opened the gate for him and the two went into their room.
Not quite long, she said, Beatrice’s niece came to ask her about the whereabouts of the deceased, since a knock on his door did not yield any response.
“I told the girl that Beatrice was in her room with Cromwell but she came back to tell me that several knocks did not elicit any response but I became worried because Cromwell just came around,” she said.
According to Madam Owoo, she followed up and knocked the door and yet there was no response and , therefore, went for a spare key to open the door and because Cromwell was tall she saw his head and asked him where Beatrice had been.
She said Cromwell told her that Beatrice was asleep but she wondered that could be true when they both entered not too long ago.
The witness said that while talking the deceased’s niece said they should call Beatrice and when they did she did not respond and the girl spotted traces of blood making her (landlady) to exclaim “Oh my Lord”.
She said that having found the traces of blood herself, she shouted and then her driver came into the room and hit the door to the bedroom with his leg and when it was opened they saw Beatrice lying dead on the bed covered with a pillow.
“We noticed that Beatrice’s tongue had stuck out,” she said, and added that many people were attracted to the room and started wailing and she sent for the police.
She said that when the police arrived and opened the kitchen they found Cromwell hiding behind the fridge in a pool of blood.
Madam Owoo said later on a lady carrying a baby and claimed to be the wife of Cromwell came to the house to say that the accused person had threatened to kill the deceased and also kill himself but when she asked the lady why she delayed in coming to report the lady replied that she did not know the house.
A brother of the deceased, Mr Ebenezer Hughes, also testified and said that on that day he was at work and he received a call from his niece that Beatrice was dead.
He said that upon receiving the information, he went to Beatrice’s house and met a crowd including the police but he was asked to wait for sometime and after that the police called him to assist to take the body to the morgue.
Another witness, Madam Beatrice Miller, Beatrice’s aunt, said on the day of the incident she was at home at about 5.30 a.m. when a lady carrying a baby came to inform her that Cromwell had said he was going to kill Beatrice and then kill himself.
Therefore, she said, she sent her granddaughter, Genevive Addo, to the house of Beatrice to inform her about the story but when Genevive went she called to say that a lot of people were wailing in the house and that Beatrice might have been dead.