The attackers first shot and killed the owners Justus and Elzabé Erasmus and then executed all witnesses by first firing at them and then setting five of them alight with diesel fuel.
All life sentences in Namibia can be set aside after as little as ten years, and the nature and severity of the committed crimes are not factors weighed by the prison authorities in considerations of early release.
[8] Judge President Petrus Damaseb followed the prosecution's request and in November 2011 handed out some of the longest prison terms in Namibian history.
Damaseb remarked about the case:[2] "[Y]ou tortured your victims and committed crimes the likes of which I hope I will not [again] have the misfortune to preside over during the remainder of my judicial career.
Beukes emerged from the Kalkrand police station in December 2004, three months prior to the massacre, where he was in custody for the charges brought by Erasmus.
[4] Stoney Neidel was found guilty of theft and illegal possession of firearms and sentenced to an effective six years of imprisonment.
[2] In February 2018 the Supreme Court of Namibia ruled in an unrelated case that it is unconstitutional to sentence offenders for so long that there is "no realistic prospect of release in the sense of fully engaging in society again—if at all—during their life times".
Other Namibian convicts serving extra long sentences also had their effective jail terms reduced to or below the limit set by the Supreme Court.