Musa Brandon Ngwira jailed for life over Jo La Spina’s rape and murder
A MAN who claimed his uncle was Nelson Mandela’s security guard has been jailed for life for the rape and murder of a young photographer.
MUSA Brandon Ngwira claimed his uncle was the security guard once charged with protecting the life of freedom-fighter-turned-South-African-president Nelson Mandela.
But rather than following in his uncle’s footsteps, two decades on, and half a world away, the 33-year-old South African would take the life of another.
Ngwira was working as a tour guide in the far north Queensland coastal resort town of Mission Beach in April, 2014 when, in the early hours of Easter Saturday, he raped and murdered popular young photographer Jo La Spina.
Incredibly, the 193cm Ngwira claimed he acted in self-defence when he strangled to death the petite 26-year-old blonde.
The pair had been part of a group who had been partying at a local hostel on the night before Ms La Spina’s body was found.
Friends of the young tourism worker reported the pretty blonde had rejected Ngwira’s advances, before they both left a beach bonfire in the company of others, to go to the townhouse of a friend of Ms La Spina’s.
The 26-year-old fell asleep in an empty bedroom upstairs, where she remained at 7am when trainee raft guide Warrick Daniel, who lived at the townhouse, left for work.
Mr Ngwira was asleep on the couch.
Just 20 minutes later, a nearby resident heard Ms La Spina’s screams but it was not until 5pm, when Mr Daniel returned home from work, the crime that had been committed was discovered.
In an upstairs shower, where the water was still running, Ms La Spina’s naked body lay cold.
A length of nylon cord was around her neck and a note was nearby.
Her killer had staged the scene to make it appear the popular young tourism worker had taken her own life.
But there were a number of things Ngwira could not disguise.
He could not hide the 52 injuries on her body.
He could not disguise his DNA on her, on her clothes and on a pillowcase in the room she had slept in.
And, despite his best efforts at clearing his laptop hard drive, he could not conceal a number of Google searches that had been performed on the computer, including “what is the penalty for killing a person in Australia” and “what is the punishment for killing a person in Australia Qld”.
Life in jail, came the answer in the Cairns Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Ngwira pleaded not guilty to rape, murder and interfering with a corpse.
The jury took less than three hours to convict him of all charges, after an eight-day trial.
In sentencing him to life for murder and 16 years on the rape charge, Justice James Henry said the final moments before Ms La Spina lapsed into unconsciousness must have been “awful and terrifying”.
Ngwira, who gave evidence, admitted he choked the young photographer but said he did so in self-defence.
He also refuted the rape charge, saying the pair had commenced consensual sex but that she suddenly she became angry and attacked him.
In giving evidence, the Cairns Post reported Ngwira told the court Ms La Spina pushed him from behind and he hit his head on the door before he grabbed her.
“I put her in a choke hold, or what I thought was a choke hold,” the newspaper reported he said.
“It went on maybe a minute, two minutes, I don’t know. It just came to a point where she stopped making those (heavy breathing) noises.
“I did not instigate that struggle; I did not intend for that to happen.”
Despite towering over the petite blonde he said he feared for his life.
He staged her death to look like a suicide, he said, because he was scared no-one would believe what happened.
“I was scared, I was afraid no one would believe me. It was my word against hers,” Mr Ngwira said.
“Being a black man and having vivid memories of growing up in South Africa, I was scared.”
Justice Henry said the finger imprints on Ms La Spina’s throat pointed to him taking her life with his hands.
“The pathologist was of the opinion that you strangled her to death. It seems to me that was the only and inevitable conclusion to be drawn from the state of her body, which included obviously finger imprint bruising around her throat,” he said.
“All of that evidence, that circumstantial evidence, tells the obvious story that you allowed your sexual interest, your desire to sexually dominate Ms La Spina ... to overwhelm your behaviour ... to focus solely on your own self indulgent desires and needs and persist with them in the face of her resistance to the point where you throttled her to death.”
Ms La Spina’s murder rocked the small, tight-knit community of Mission Beach, where her family were well known, long-time members of the community.
Outside court, her uncle, Phillip Spokes, told the ABC his family would never be the same.
“This day hasn’t changed anything — Jo still isn’t here,” he said.
kim.stephens@news.com.au