Wow: Oscar P's sobbing was so good the judge stopped the proceedings: "My compassion as a human being does not allow me to

Maybe Maybe Not wrote:

But if you are so paranoid that at the first noise, you would get your gun and proceed to shoot blindly in a closed room, why would you ever leave any window unlocked? You would be the OCD person who - throughout the house - checks every lock 2-3 times, before going to bed. He recalls construction ladders in this time of terror. Why didn't he recall them before he went to bed and lock the bathroom window?

If you go back to the 6.11 statement, OP stated he realized the bathroom window was open--different from being unlocked. Also, if he knew he didn't have a security bar on the window, why not have an alarm/senors on the windows or the sliding doors? Did he not have air conditioning? Is that why he got a fan? And if he's so paranoid about an intruder coming in, why go get a fan outside the balcony w/o any protection or put on a light if bedroom was pitch black? How are you able to see?

quick draw mcgraw wrote:

it's also possible she hit him with the bat and his blood is embedded in it. they clearly had a fight earlier in the night (cops don't show up to minor arguments over who forgot to take the garbage out) and we know he is a violent nut. i think this is much more plausible than him hitting her with it because he doesn't appear to have any bat marks. plus, i would assume he would beat the crap out of her with his hands and wouldn't need a bat to do so.

well if it were his blood there would be bat marks on him, no? maybe I don't understand what you are saying.

And remember that he has no legs - hard for a man with n legs to beat the crap out of anyone. hard for him to get leverage, easier for her to get away.

the crushed skull 'fact' seems to be very weak - it is only referred to as 'reported'. But that is very important.

marty mcfeester wrote:

Even if what OP says is 100% true, he is still fully responsible for this young ladies death as he was wildly negligent for firing four bullets through a closed door before ascertaining who was behind it. No matter the real story... accident, 'roid rage, lover's quarrel turned violent, he should go to prison.

This ^^ is all we need to know. If we assume OP is telling the truth, which is the best possible scenario for him at this point, he was unbelievably negligent and because of that and him being a gun-nut he murdered his girlfriend. The fact that it was his girlfriend that he murdered, rather than someone else, is the only accident that happened. The guy is a straight up killer who shoots blindly through doors out of fear. He is the very definition of an out of control idiot with a gun.

marty mcfeester wrote:

Even if what OP says is 100% true, he is still fully responsible for this young ladies death as he was wildly negligent for firing four bullets through a closed door before ascertaining who was behind it. No matter the real story... accident, 'roid rage, lover's quarrel turned violent, he should go to prison.

This ^^ is all we need to know. If we assume OP is telling the truth, which is the best possible scenario for him at this point, he was unbelievably negligent and because of that and him being a gun-nut he murdered his girlfriend. The fact that it was his girlfriend that he murdered, rather than someone else, is the only accident that happened. The guy is a straight up killer who shoots blindly through doors out of fear. He is the very definition of an out of control idiot with a gun.

The crime in SA is so bad that when you hear noises coming from a locked bathroom on an upstairs floor, you are to automatically assume that it's an intruder and not your girlfriend using the toilet, and therefor making it not only reasonable but legally excusable to cause her death by shooting her four times through a locked bathroom door. The crime is that bad in SA... really?If some guy living in the worst crime-ravaged city in the USA did this to his wife and offered the same excuse, no one would believe him.

no taste in music wrote:

Ever lived in S. Africa?

Ever seen the lay out of his place?

It might well have been a perfect storm.

There are probably many details yet to come out.

__

ok, but it is also the difference between, say, 5 years in jail and 50.

i assume there would be marks on him if she hit him but the police haven't said what his body looks like (i assume that the SA cops examine the bodies of prime suspects). she also could have picked it up to threatened him or try and protect herself without ever hitting him.

i agree that the crushed skull fact hasn't been confirmed. if she had a crushed skull, then his story is toast.

it's not that hard for a roided guy with no legs to be the crap out of a woman. you basically stump over to her and tackle her so her legs no longer matter. alternatively, they could have been in bed and already not standing up. when i think of him stumping around in the house, i think of what a chimp looks like scooting around with mostly its long arms and short legs.

There's still a lot to see the light of day. http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/02/19/oscar_pistorius_shooting_five_things_we_know_about_the_olympian_s_murder.html

Rodney Plonker wrote:

Even 'if' this chain events is true, there's still little or no excuse for blindly shooting at someone through a door, even if they have broken into your house. Assuming it had been someone else in there and he'd shot them dead (which is presumably what he thought he was doing at the time), he'd still be looking at extremely serious charges. He was obviously never physically or verbally threatened by the 'intruder' as they didn't exist. Absolutely no excuse for what he did.

Breaking into people's houses is obviously worthy of punishment but not being executed on the spot by some numbskull who thinks he's above the law

quick draw mcgraw wrote:

it's also possible she hit him with the bat and his blood is embedded in it. they clearly had a fight earlier in the night (cops don't show up to minor arguments over who forgot to take the garbage out) and we know he is a violent nut. i think this is much more plausible than him hitting her with it because he doesn't appear to have any bat marks. plus, i would assume he would beat the crap out of her with his hands and wouldn't need a bat to do so.

This is yeat to be clearly established.

The is a guy used to going to a shooting range regularly, and firing off rounds at a good clip I bet. Read the Slate story, he has a history of be jittery and maybe paranoid about home invasion burglary.

He might get off easy or even acquitted because he is such a big celebrity. The judge seems very soft on him already.

agip wrote:

give him 20 wrote:

This ^^ is all we need to know. If we assume OP is telling the truth, which is the best possible scenario for him at this point, he was unbelievably negligent and because of that and him being a gun-nut he murdered his girlfriend. The fact that it was his girlfriend that he murdered, rather than someone else, is the only accident that happened. The guy is a straight up killer who shoots blindly through doors out of fear. He is the very definition of an out of control idiot with a gun.

__

ok, but it is also the difference between, say, 5 years in jail and 50.

I would hope someone would get more than 5 years for intentionally murdering someone. It's not like he accidentally hit someone with a car. He intentionally shot someone to death, because when you shoot 4 bullets into a door of a small toilet-room when you know someone is in there you are shooting to kill. And why would there be a difference in jail time depending on who was on the other side of the door. No matter who is behind that door he still intentionally shot someone to death, the law doesn't care if it was the (imaginary) person he was intending to kill or not. Just because he killed the wrong person doesn't change a sentence between 5 and 50 years.

If he is lying and the true is he was specifically attacking his girlfriend in anger to kill her, then yeah the sentence would change. But i'm saying I believe him, and even given his story he deserves lots of jail time.

They cremated Reeva Steenkamp today. So In less than 4 days, they have covered every base from an autopsy and prosecution perspective? I'm no criminal prosecutor, bu that seems to end the options to further review evidence based on new theories or defenses coming out. Why would they cremate her so quickly?

He tweeted some time back that he came home and found the washing machine on in his house and took his gun and went into "full recon" mode.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/02/19/oscar_pistorius_shooting_five_things_we_know_about_the_olympian_s_murder.html

Not saying he is innocent; it is weird though that there is a history in the public record of him being pretty into guns for self protection, and a victim of violent crime and burglary himself.

I mean, there's that NYT article, I think it is, where it even describes, like a year ago, his 9mm, his cricket bat, his baseball bat, and a machine gun he kept in his bedroom...eerie now to see what it all came too.

We're also talking about a country with 50% crime rate. A police force notorious for being corrupt, private security forces also not entirely trusted by whites, as hey are often primarly hired blacks.

SA is VERY different.

Also, 40% of all SA women are physically abused by their male partners.

A woman in SA is murdered by her partner once every 8 hours.

And how tragically ironic that the victim was an advocate against violence towards women. One would think if Oscar had ever been violent towards her she would have been out of there.

It's a crazy tragic story as it emerges.

say what now wrote:

They cremated Reeva Steenkamp today. So In less than 4 days, they have covered every base from an autopsy and prosecution perspective? I'm no criminal prosecutor, bu that seems to end the options to further review evidence based on new theories or defenses coming out. Why would they cremate her so quickly?

Different countries and religious have different amounts of time when they feel "it's time" to cremate/bury.

It's not like they were going to test her for poisoning in the future.

I am sure they got all the pictures and tissue samples they needed.

A thought on OP's statement that the bedroom door was locked and felt trapped -- somebody asked what the significance of this might be. I interpret this to mean he locks his bedroom door from the inside, probably in a manner that makes it hard to quickly unlock the door (a keyed deadbolt, maybe a combo lock, etc.) and, if an intruder gained access to his sleeping quarters he felt extremely vulnerable.

My guess is OP's rationale for shooting through the bathroom door is based on the fact he believed an intruder had made it not just into his house, but into his bedroom which is locked separately.

Am I missing something with the paranoia and open bathroom window panic defense when the doors to your balcony are left wide open whilst you sleep, blinds/curtains open as well?

If one is terrified of intruders, who sleeps with balcony doors open, with previous knowledge of ladders nearby?

Yes, and in South Africa it is a judge who gives the verdict, not a jury.

This was the only "story" that could get him off. This could be a tough sell though.

Bconvey,

Nice analysis.

Ok, here's my take (Assuming he shot her in cold blood).

At first, I didn't get why he would yelled out. I mean that makes no sense to me, because if he yelled out, he'd probably hear her reply.

I guess he might include that to explain possibly why neighbors heard shouts late at night.

To me, if it comes out that there was a disturbance there earlier in the night, he's serving a long time.