A Half-Assini District Magistrate Court in the Western Region has remanded a man into two weeks prison custody for allegedly stealing a dog and murdering the owner at Takinta.
The Court presided over by Mr Abdul Majid Illiasu, reserved his plea and ordered John Cudjoe aka Emile Kwasi Kojo who allegedly killed Stephen Yeboah to reappear on February 21.
Prosecuting, police detective Sergeant Richard Amoah said the wife of the deceased detected the absence of their dog named “Hope” from their house and enquired from her husband the whereabout of the dog.
He said the deceased became suspicious that the accused might have stolen the dog and confronted him amidst a threat of arrest that resulted in a quarrel between them.
The Prosecutor on the same day, the accused invited the deceased for some discussions outside his house but the deceased wife argued against it.
He said at about 3:30 am the next day the accused went to the deceased under the pretext of showing him where his missing dog was.
Detective Amoah said after they had covered some distance an exchange of words generated between them, which resulted in the accused slapping the deceased.
In an attempt to hit back with a torchlight he [deceased] was holding, he was shot in the stomach by the accused, killing him instantly.
According to the detective, one Constance Ocran, a junior high school student of Takinta DA JSS, who lives in an adjacent compound to the deceased, overheard the two arguing about the dog and later heard the gunshot from the direction where the two were standing and raised an alarm.
However, before people could arrive at the scene the accused had escaped with the gun leaving the deceased in a pool of blood.
The detective said a report was later made to the police and the body was conveyed to the Half-Assini Government Hospital morgue.
He said on February 3, the accused was spotted in a bush at Takinta and was apprehended by the natives of the town who later handed him over to the Police.
Sergeant Amoah said the accused admitted the offence in his caution statement and that his docket was being forwarded to Attorney General for the necessary advice.