New information is appearing in South African newspapers about the death of Oscar Pistorius' girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius will appear in court Tuesday for a bond hearing held on the same day as Steenkamp's funeral. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
By Rohit Kachroo, Michelle Kosinski and Tracy Connor, NBC News
Prosecutors told a court Tuesday that there was nothing to support Oscar Pistorius? claim that he thought his girlfriend was an intruder when he fatally shot her through a locked bathroom door at his home in South Africa.
A bail hearing, described as a ?little trial? by one expert, was being held to determine whether the double-amputee athlete known as "Blade Runner" should be freed pending trial.
As the defense and prosecution lawyers argued, the family and friends of slain model and law-school graduate Reeva Steenkamp held a tearful funeral Tuesday.
At the start of the hearing, Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair asked Pistorius "are you well?" to which the athlete shrugged and said "I guess." His eyes welled with tears.
The prosecution said they were proceeding with a charge of premeditated murder over Steenkamp's killing early on?Valentine's Day.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel?said Steenkamp had arrived in Pistorius' home in a suburb of Pretoria sometime between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. the previous night.
There was "no possible explanation to support" Pistorius' claim that he thought Steenkamp was an intruder, Nel said.
And he added that even if Steenkamp had been an intruder, the shooting would still have been the murder of a burglar.
Nel said Pistorius had armed himself, put on his prosthetic legs, walked to the bathroom and shot Steenkamp several times through the locked door as she sat on the toilet.?
"She locked that door for a purpose," Nel said.
The prosecutor asked why a burglar would have locked themselves inside the bathroom,?which is just 4.5 feet square.
After the shooting, Pistorius broke down the door and carried Steenkamp downstairs, where he met a security guard and a friend, according to the prosecution. He told them that he had thought Steenkamp was an intruder.
As the?prosecution laid out the basics of their case, Pistorius began to cry and held his head in his hands.
Pistorius' defense argued the sports star was not guilty of murder, insisting that he had thought Steenkamp was an intruder. They said Pistorius would describe the events in more detail in an affidavit.
The defense lawyer claimed other husbands had shot their wives thinking they were intruders and asked "Where's the premeditation?"?
Nel said he was now "more convinced" about what happened following the defense's comments.
Karyn Maughan, legal correspondent for South Africa news channel ENCA, told NBC's TODAY that if a premeditated murder charge stands, there would be dire consequences for Pistorius.
?If he can?t prove that her death was unintentional, then it is unlikely he will get bail and he also faces a life sentence in jail,? she said. ?He must try to convince the court he shot her in confusion, thinking she was an intruder."
Pistorius has hired his own high-profile forensic expert to analyze the police reports and post-mortem exam, ENCA reported. His defense team includes lawyer Kenny Oldwage, who previously won an acquittal for a driver accused of killing Nelson Mandela's great-grandchild in a 2010 accident.
Model and law-school graduate?Steenkamp's relatives are hoping for answers.
"Why my little girl?" her mother, June Steenkamp, asked in an interview with The Times of Johannesburg,?calling her bubbly, blonde daughter "the most beautiful person who ever lived."
"All we have is this horrendous death to deal with ... to get to grips with," she said. "All we want are answers ... answers as to why this had to happen, why our beautiful daughter had to die like this."
Steenkamp's family and friends gathered at a 90-seat chapel in Port Elizabeth, where Steenkamp grew up, for her funeral.
"She's my little sister and she's gone," her brother, Adam, told ENCA. "There is a big hole there that cannot be filled by anything else."
Steenkamp and Pistorius had been dating for about three months, and she tweeted a Valentine's Day message hours before her death.
The track star, who captivated the world when he became the first double-amputee to run in the Olympics at last summer's London Games, was a gun enthusiast who once took a reporter writing a profile of him to a firing range.
A South African newspaper reported Monday that he nearly shot a friend by accident while handling another friend's gun at a Johannesburg restaurant.
"I had quite a fright because the bullet hit the ground centimeters from my foot," boxer Kevin Lerena told the Beeld newspaper, according to Agence France-Presse.
"For some reason it got caught on his trousers, flipped the safety pin and a shot went off. I wouldn't say he was negligent. Days afterwards he was still apologizing."
Ian Johnston, of NBC News, contributed to this report.
Related:
Mother of Pistorius' slain girlfriend: 'Why my little girl?'
Agent: Sponsors sticking by Oscar Pistorius
Oscar Pistorius' agent cancels races
?
?
This story was originally published on Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:01 AM EST
daytona 500 blue ivy carter meteorite lebron james NASA asteroid cruise ship
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.