HIV Positive Zimbabwean Man Slept With 18 Women In The US, Infects 4, Gets 120 Years Jail Term

A Zimbabwean man in the US has been sentenced to 120 years in jail for knowingly transmitting HIV to four west Texas women.

36-year-old Derick Nhekairo pleaded guilty to a multitude of charges including aggravated assault.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Nhekairo had been living in the area since 2000 on an expired student visa.

Midland County prosecutor Laura Nodolf said he slept with 18 women and told none of them he carries the AIDS virus.



Nhekairo was arrested on 6 July 2012, on a second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury. The victim filed a criminal complaint against Nhekairo in October 2011.

She said she had contracted HIV from him while the two had been sexually involved between June and September 2008. She said he had knowledge he was infected but did not inform her or use safety measures, according to previous Reporter-Telegram records.

When MPD detectives interviewed Nhekairo in June 2012, he said the woman’s “claim that she had gotten the virus from him was probably true,” detectives wrote in the warrant’s narrative.

Texas courts have upheld the criminal charge of reckless or intentionally infecting a victim with HIV under Article 1.07a subsection 17 of the Texas Penal Code and Title 5 section 22.02. Texas is one of 35 states to have prosecuted someone successfully for intentionally and recklessly infecting someone with the HIV virus, according to previous records.