What do we know––or think we know––now that the prosecution has rested its case in the trial of Oscar Pistorius, accused of murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp?
According to his bail affidavit, Pistorius describes a quiet dinner together on February 14, 2013, before he and Steenkamp went to bed shortly after ten p.m. During the early morning hours, he woke up, went onto the balcony to bring the fan in, and closed the sliding doors, the blinds and the curtains. Hearing a noise in the bathroom, he assumed that someone had entered his house and that Steenkamp was still in bed.
Claiming he was too scared to switch a light on in the pitch dark bedroom, Pistorius grabbed his 9mm pistol from underneath his bed and, on his way to the bathroom without his prosthetic legs, he screamed for the intruder to get out of his house and for Reeva to phone the police.
Upon entering the bathroom, he noticed that the bathroom window was open. The toilet was inside the bathroom and had a separate door. He thought the intruder was in the toilet because the toilet door was closed, and he heard movement inside the toilet.
Pistorius fired shots at the toilet door and again yelled for Reeva to call the police. When she did not respond, he went to the bed and realized she was not in it. That’s when it dawned on him that Steenkamp might have been in the toilet. Why she did not acknowledge this the first time he screamed for her to call the police has not been answered.
A neighbor, awoken just before 3 a.m. by a coughing fit, went out onto her small bedroom balcony – 236 feet from Pistorius’ home – to see what was going on. She heard a woman’s terrified screaming and a man’s lower tone – as other witnesses have testified to earlier in the trial. She stated that she heard both voices at exactly the same time, thereby undermining the defense’s suggestion that the female screaming could actually be that of a distressed Pistorius. The neighbor testified that she heard two sets of three shots. She said she heard the female screams continue during the second set of shots, ending only with the last shot fired.
The neighbor’s husband testified that the light was on in Pistorius’ bathroom as he went onto the balcony to investigate the sounds. His wife testified that the bathroom light was on before she heard either sets of shots fired. She also noticed a light in the left window – the enclosed toilet cubicle. Pistorius’ lawyers have stated that the light in the toilet was not working, which suggests that for light to be visible the door would have to be open. If the door were open prior to the shooting, Steenkamp’s screams would have been more likely to carry through the open window.
The pathologist testified that Steenkamp was struck in her right upper arm, her right hip and her head. He also testified that the bullet hole in the waistband of her shorts corresponded with her hip wound, indicating that she was wearing them when she was shot, despite being in the toilet.
The defense begins its portion of the trial next week. Pistorius is expected to take the stand in his own defense. He and his defense team will attempt to convince a judge and a skeptical public––including yours truly––that his lame story is the one we should believe.
