Why DJ Fatxo, friends could not have killed Jeff - DPP

The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji has explained why none of the individuals arrested on suspicion of involvement in the death of interior designer Jeff Mwathi could be charged with murder.

In a letter to the Director of Criminal Investigations dated May 9 and signed by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Gikui Gichuhi, the DPP outlined the evidence that exonerated the suspects.

The DPP said Jeff, whose real name is Geoffrey Mwathi Ngugi, had visited DJ Fatxo, real name Lawrence Njuguna Wagura on February 21 for an interior design job at his business along Eastern Bypass.

He said the two alongside Jeff's friends indulged in food and drinks at various bars before retiring for rest at Fatxo's house at 3 am on February 22.

The residence was located on the 10th floor of Redwood apartment within Roysambu in Kisarani, Nairobi. 

"It was reported that the deceased went missing from the guest bedroom only for his lifeless body to be found on the ground floor of the said apartment building," Haji said.

He said subsequent investigations, witness submissions and autopsy results before and after burial proved that Jeff died at the scene where his body was found.

Probe results

Haji said autopsy results showed that Jeff died from a haemorrhage caused by blunt trauma consistent with a high-velocity fall.

He suffered a fractured limb, a broken skull and his brains were splattered.

The DPP said CCTV evidence showed DJ Fatxo leaving the apartment at 5.02am in the company of three ladies, ostensibly to drop them home in Roysambu.

The security camera also captured Jeff falling and hitting the ground at 5.47am, some 45 minutes after Dj Fatxo had left with his visitors.  

This in essence placed the DJ out of the apartment at the time of the fall.

"CCTV footage shows the deceased's body hitting the ground and bouncing off the ground due to gravitational pull owing to the height of the fall and his phone getting out of his right hand immediately after he hit the ground.

The DPP said CCTV captured Fatxo's return to the apartment at 9.05am where he was briefed by the security guards about what had happened.

Ten minutes before Jeff's fall, Haji said security cameras captured Fatxo's cousin and driver identified as D9 and D8 in witness statements going down the parkin ramp at 5.37am seemingly looking for DJ Fatxo.

The duo was also captured going up the same ramp at 5.39am and 5.40am.

They are again captured coming out of the 10th-floor lift at 5.47am going back into the house, the same moment Jeff was captured falling.

"This places them out of the house at the time of the deceased death," the DPP said.

Haji said DNA analysis of samples obtained after the second autopsy conducted by Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor following the exhumation of Jeff's remains at his parent's home at Laika in Nakuru county did not link any of the three male friends to his death.

"The totality of the witness statements and the documentary evidence in the file thus far do eliminate the suspicion that the death of the deceased was as a result of unlawful act or omission of the three persons of concern herein and/or that anyone of them had formed the intention of unlawfully killing the Geoffrey Mwathi," the DPP concluded.

He, however, said the door is still open for a public inquest to be filed at the Chief Magistrates Court at Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi.

"At this point in time the information in the file does not meet the threshold for murder charge as malice aforethought has not been established,' Haji said. 

The timeline of the filing of the inquest lapsed on May 23, 14 days after the DPP issued the statement ruling out a murder charge.

Jeff's mother Anne Mwathi has since issued a statement insisting that her son was murdered and accused the DCI of covering up the crime.

"I am hurt... They had me exhume my son's body and then reported that there was no evidence. That was wrong," she said during an interview on May 8.