Brutal wife murderer’s death sentence upheld

But on May 20, 2015, Naomi was not lucky. The husband trailed her to her mother’s place after they fought at home and lured her to a nearby thicket. He slit her throat and stabbed her with a sword, leaving her lying in a pool of blood. She died. 

The High Court convicted Aleman of murder in December 2017 and sent him to death row. 

The Court of Appeal has now upheld the conviction and sentence, condemning in a judgment on May 9, 2025, the gruesome and repeated violence. 

During the High Court hearing on June 2, 2015,  the couple's nine-year-old son testified that his parents quarreled often, and his father beat his mother.

On cross-examination, the boy said his father often threatened to kill the mother and die by suicide.

Naomi's mother told the court that she saw her body at the mortuary with the neck slit and bearing knife cuts. 

“The marriage was rocky and characterised by brutal violence meted out on the deceased by the appellant, including threats to kill her,” court papers quote her as saying.

“The deceased fled with her children to Kikopey and the appellant ….visited her several times pleading with her to return home with the children, but she declined her request.”

The three judges of the Court of Appeal recounted that “on the fateful day, he visited her at her mother’s place at Kikopey, left with her in the morning as she was going to work, but that was the last day she was to be seen alive”, and that “he does not dispute killing her.”

“We agree with the learned judge that the appellant never tabled evidence to rebut the presumption of sanity on a balance of preponderance of evidence. Therefore, his plea of insanity was properly rejected,” they said. 

 “Accordingly, we find no reason to interfere with the death sentence imposed on the appellant. The upshot of the foregoing is that the appellant’s appeal against both conviction and sentence fails and is hereby dismissed.”