Oscar Pistorius shoots and kills girlfriend by accident

[Tropicana]

Lawyers for Oscar Pistorius file appeal against bail conditions in South African court

Lawyers for Oscar Pistorius have filed an appeal in a South African court against bail restrictions imposed on the Olympian, who was charged with murdering his girlfriend.
The lawyers argue that evidence showed that the double-amputee athlete is not a flight risk and should have the option of traveling outside South Africa as long as he has official permission.

The appeal was filed Friday. On Monday, The Associated Press received a copy of the papers by email from representatives of the Pistorius family.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...4e4_story.html

[Tropicana]

Wow...seems a bit harsh given the evidence....

Pretoria, South Africa (CNN) -- Oscar Pistorius will go on trial on March 3, accused of premeditated murder in the death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.At a hearing Monday, prosecutors indicted Pistorius in the Valentine's Day shooting death. Pistorius has been charged with planned and premeditated murder, which comes with a mandatory sentence of life behind bars.
The indictment says "the accused did unlawfully and intentionally kill a person."
Pistorius also was indicted for allegedly violating South Africa's firearms control act.
In South Africa, people can possess ammunition only if they're licensed to own a gun, and their ammunition must be specific to that weapon. Pistorius has acknowledged storing ammunition for a gun his father owned.

Steenkamp would have turned 30 on Monday.
The indictment follows the completion of the police investigation into the case.
The double amputee track star killed the woman he calls the love of his life in his home. He denies the murder charge and says he mistook her for a home invader.
The first phase of the trial will take place in March, but the entire trial could take place at various times across a year or more because of potential motions and postponements along the way.
In the indictment, the prosecutors included a list of more than 100 witnesses the state might call. The Pistorius legal team has not released a witness list.
The police investigation team "is convinced that the accused has a charge to answer," a police statement said last week.
A tearful Pistorius
A phalanx of reporters snapped pictures of an emotional Pistorius as he entered the courtroom Monday. While the Olympic sprinter largely maintained his composure, an occasional tear streamed down his cheek.
Before the proceedings started, he held hands with his brother and sister as they appeared to pray.
The athlete's family said in June that he would resume running using his blade-shaped prosthetic legs. Pistorius has started sprinting again for the sake of his emotional health, not for training to compete again, the family said.
Michael Steenkamp, the victim's uncle, said the model's family isn't focusing on Pistorius' guilt or innocence, and they will not attend any of the related court proceedings.
The family said it would be spending time together remembering Steenkamp on Monday.
"My wife and myself are going up to (see) my brother in Port Elizabeth, and we will be there with (Steenkamp's parents) on Monday to be there for Reeva's birthday. What could we do? Bake a cake and, you know, sit down quietly and reminisce about the qualities of Reeva's life," he said.
The uncle said his faith has helped him forgive Pistorius.
"If I can't forgive him, and I have been forgiven, then that is our sin. And I very much asked the Lord to guide me before I got to Port Elizabeth when the tragedy happened ... that took a lot of pressure off my shoulders," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/19/world/africa/oscar-pistorius-steenkamp-case/index.html

Anyway, if he is guilty, he should give up running and go to Hollywood because he is one heck of a great actor.

[Tropicana]

Another story

Oscar Pistorius' character, his temper and his use of guns are expected to be examined in his murder trial for the killing of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, based on the prosecution's list of witnesses.Members of Oscar Pistorius' family, an ex-girlfriend, some of his friends and neighbors, men connected to firearms clubs, a professional cage fighter, a boxer and a host of police specialists and experts are listed as prosecution witnesses for the double-amputee Olympian's murder trial next year.
The Associated Press takes a closer look at some of the 107 state witnesses after Pistorius was indicted on a charge of premeditated murder for the killing of Steenkamp. His trial is set to start on March 3, 2014.
___
FIRST ON THE SCENE
Pistorius said in an affidavit, his only testimony so far, that Johan Stander was the first person he phoned after he shot Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14. He asked Stander to call an ambulance. Stander, who Pistorius described as an administrator of the gated community where the athlete lived, arrived at the house as Pistorius carried a fatally wounded Steenkamp downstairs, according to Pistorius.
As the first person to talk to and to see Pistorius after the shooting, Stander's observations of the immediate aftermath may help a judge decide whether Pistorius had minutes earlier committed murder, as prosecutors say, or made a deadly mistake — the core of the trial.
___
NEIGHBORS, GUARDS & 'THE DOCTOR'
There are 18 people, including Stander, on the state witness list connected to the Silver Woods Estate where Pistorius lived.
A key part of the prosecutors' case is that they say some of the witnesses, likely neighbors or estate workers, heard a woman scream before the gunshots. The suggestion is not only of a fight between the couple, but also that Pistorius should have known where Steenkamp was by the scream before he shot.
Security guards and an unnamed doctor, who Pistorius said lived at Silver Woods and also arrived at his house soon after he shot Steenkamp, may testify. The prosecution says that Pistorius "walked into security guards" when he went downstairs carrying Steenkamp. The guards are not mentioned by Pistorius.
___
PISTORIUS' FAMILY & FRIENDS
Pistorius' uncle Arnold, brother Carl and sister Aimee are all named as prosecution witnesses. It's unclear when or if members of Pistorius' family arrived at his home in the hours following the shooting, but the prosecution said in an initial charge sheet that the runner "said to a friend/sister that he thought it was a burglar," claiming Pistorius talked to people close to him soon after he killed Steenkamp. Other friends of Pistorius are witnesses, including one who also lived at Silver Woods and a car dealer who says he introduced Pistorius and Steenkamp in 2012.
___
TOP COPS & EXPERTS
Nearly 50 police officers and experts could be called by the state at the trial, including 17 forensic, ballistics and crime scene specialists and a criminal psychologist. Also involved in the case are members of South Africa's Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, which deals with national priority crimes and shows how seriously the country's authorities are taking the case against its one-time sporting hero.
Hilton Botha, the police's former lead investigator who was dropped from the case and later left the force, will likely reappear as a state witness.

TBC

[Tropicana]

Continued:

DRUGS & SUBSTANCES
A sports medicine specialist and the head of the South African sports doping laboratory are listed as possible witnesses and may deal with any substances being taken by Pistorius amid initial claims by investigators that they found testosterone in his bedroom. Prosecutors withdrew that claim and Pistorius' representatives identified the substance he was using as a legal herbal remedy called testis compositum. Police haven't yet said what substances they may have found in the Olympian's house or through tests on him.
___

THE EX-GIRLFRIEND
Ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor apparently has stories to tell about Pistorius. She was in a car when he fired a gun through the sunroof in anger at being stopped by police at a road checkpoint, according to a South African television channel. Taylor's mother, Trish Taylor, reportedly posted on Facebook soon after the shooting: "I am so glad Sammy is safe and sound and out of the clutches of that man. There were a few occasions when things could have gone wrong with her and his gun during the time they dated."
The comments were later removed and the Taylors have declined to comment. Mother and daughter are both prosecution witnesses. Two other women Pistorius was once involved with also are listed.

CHARACTER WITNESSES
The Taylors, a former professional soccer player and a boxer could testify to Pistorius' character and whether, as prosecutors may hint, he was prone to anger and possibly violence and was reckless with guns.
The former soccer player, Mark Batchelor, has said that a drunken Pistorius once threatened him. The boxer, Kevin Lerena, is believed to have been with Pistorius at a Johannesburg restaurant weeks before the shooting when the athlete shot a gun accidentally under a table. The naming of two men from firearms clubs Pistorius had connections to shows that prosecutors will examine his gun history.
Close friends of Steenkamp and an ex-boyfriend of the model also are named by the state as witnesses.
___
THE UNKNOWNS
It's not certain what connections a Johannesburg-based cage fighter has to the case. Also intriguing is what testimony may come from Elizabeth de Jager of the South African Weather Service.

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/08/25/witnesses-expected-to-testify-about-oscar-pistorius-temper-use-guns-in-murder/

[Wahalla]

If found guilty he’s gonna have to take it on the shin.

[Wahalla]

Why is Oscar Pistorius like Real Madrid ?

they both got Bale!

[Wahalla]

What do you call a room full of dead people?
An Oscar Pistorius surprise birthday party.

[Tropicana]

Oscar Pistorius weeps as he resumes testimony

Oscar Pistorius, the disabled track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, broke down in racking sobs Monday during a fourth day of grueling cross-examination in which the prosecution accused him of shooting her deliberately.

In sharp questioning, Gerrie Nel, the prosecutor, pressed Pistorius to relive the moments before he opened fire at a locked door to a toilet cubicle in his home in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013. Pistorius has repeatedly said that he did not know who was in the room.

"I didn't fire to attack," Pistorius said. "I didn't have time to think."
"You fired at Reeva," Nel told him bluntly, referring to Pistorius' girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

For the second time in the testimony Monday morning, Pistorius broke down, saying in a choked voice, "I did not fire at Reeva."

The court was adjourned after Nel, nicknamed the "Pit Bull" for his aggressive techniques as a prosecutor, told Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa, "My lady, if the witness is emotional, may we take a break?" As he rose for the brief adjournment, Pistorius stood with his eyes closed.

When the session resumed, Nel's insistent questions also did, despite objections from the defense that the prosecutor was repeatedly going over old ground.

Nel asked why Pistorius had not warned the intruders that he was armed. "You were armed but you never said you were armed," he said.

The athlete replied that he had not wanted them to know. Why, then, had he fired, Nel asked. Pistorius responded by saying that he had heard a sound like "wood moving," perhaps when a door was opened or a magazine rack inside the cubicle was moved. "I wasn't thinking," Pistorius said. "I was screaming to the person or persons to get out."

"You never gave them the chance," Nel responded. "You said to them to get out, then never gave them the chance to do it." Witnesses for the prosecution have said that they heard a woman screaming as the shots were fired. Pistorius contends that the voice was his, but that it was higher than usual because he was struck by fear.

"I fired in quick succession," Pistorius said, "I discharged my firearm as quickly as I could."

So "why did you only fire four rounds," Nel asked. "Why not empty the magazine?"

"I pulled the trigger, my lady," Pistorius told the judge, addressing the bench rather his questioner, as is the practice in South Africa. "Because I perceived danger to be coming out to attack me. The firearm was pointed where I perceived the danger to be."

Was it just by luck, then, that the gun was pointed at Steenkamp, Nel asked. "How could that be lucky?" Pistorius said, choking up for a third time. "She lost her life."

"Mr. Pistorius, you are trying to get emotional again," Nel said, suggesting that the court adjourn for lunch.

Earlier Monday, Nel led Pistorius through detailed questions about blood spatters on bedding on the floor of his bedroom and about a blue light on the front of a hi-fi amplifier.

During his testimony, Pistorius said he heard a window slam, rose from his bed, reached for his handgun and moved down a passage toward a bathroom, shouting to whoever was in his house to leave and telling Steenkamp to "get down and call the police."

"I wanted to chase the people out of my house," he said. Pistorius, dressed in a dark suit and sitting in a wooden dock among microphones and case files, paused and sighed when Nel asked him if he remembered what exactly he had said. "Yes," he answered. "I started shouting: 'Get the (expletive) out of my house.'?"

The athlete then slumped and his shoulders heaved as he sobbed.
Nel opened his questioning Monday by declaring that the day's hearings would be devoted to establishing that Pistorius had produced a "concocted version of events" that was "in fact untrue."

"Your version is so improbable that it cannot possibly be true," he said.

As the questioning became more pointed, Pistorius said, "I don't want to argue with Mr. Nel," to which the prosecutor retorted: "I want to, Mr. Pistorius."

The defendant first took the stand on April 7 but his most harrowing testimony has unfolded since Wednesday, when Nel began to cross-examine him and batter Pistorius' version of the events that night. The athlete, a double amputee since infancy, says he opened fire from outside a locked toilet cubicle in his bathroom, only to discover that the person inside was Steenkamp.

But the prosecution contends that he committed premeditated murder, an offense that carries a minimum jail term of 25 years. "She was standing there talking to you when you shot her in the head," Nel told him Friday. "She was scared of you. She wasn't scared of an intruder."
"You shot at her knowing she was behind that door," Nel said.

"I didn't want to take anyone's life," Pistorius said. "I was never ready to shoot. I was trying to see what was happening in my home."

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/oscar-pistorius-weeps-as-he-resumes-testimony-508578

[Tropicana]

[RichD]

i think he is toast. his story does not hold water

[Tropicana]

[Tropicana]

RichD, if all of this is an act, they should send him to Hollywood.

[Tropicana]

This testimony does not look good for him.

[Tropicana]

[RichD]

RichD, if all of this is an act, they should send him to Hollywood.

so you are buying all this weepy BS?

he is a sociopath