Oscar Pistorius was “broken” after killing Reeva Steenkamp, a witness told his murder trial, as defense lawyers sought to portray the Paralympic athlete as desperate to save his model girlfiend after he shot her.
Johan Stander, the manager of the gated community where the shooting took place on Valentine’s Day last year, said that when he and his daughter arrived at the scene Pistorius was carrying Steenkamp down the stairs.
“When he reached the bottom of the stairs, my daughter asked him to put Reeva down,” Stander said. “He was really crying. He was broken, he was screaming, crying, praying.”
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Stander’s testimony was part of the defense’s fightback after an expert witness was challenged by prosecutor Gerrie Nel about his qualifications and he contradicted Pistorius’s version of the way Steenkamp had fallen after being shot while in the toilet cubicle at his house in Pretoria.
Both Stander and his daughter, Carice Viljoen, said Pistorius asked them to help take Steenkamp to the hospital.
“He kept begging Reeva to please stay with him, ‘stay with me my love,’” Viljoen said in her testimony yesterday.
Double-amputee Pistorius, 27, has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder and said he thought Steenkamp was an intruder.Nel has argued that Pistorius shot Steenkamp after they had an argument, with neighbors testifying they heard shouting and a woman’s screams shortly after 3 a.m. on Feb. 14, last year. Pistorius says police tampered with evidence, moving items at the crime scene.
‘Shoot himself’
Viljoen said that she feared Pistorius would kill himself when he ran upstairs to find Steenkamp’s bag to provide paramedics with her identification.
“I thought he was going to go and shoot himself and I shouted to him to bring the bag,” she said.
During her testimony Viljoen said that a person identified only as Frank, who worked at Pistorius’s home, was at the house when she and her father arrived minutes after the shooting.
The trial, which started on March 3, is being broadcast live on radio and TV. Pistorius has also pleaded not guilty to three gun-related charges.
Judge Thokozile Masipa, who will give the final judgment in the case because South Africa doesn’t have a jury system, could consider a lesser charge of culpable homicide if she rules that the act wasn’t premeditated. Pistorius would face a minimum of 25 years in jail if convicted of premeditated murder.
Blade Runner
Nel has sought to undermine the defense’s portrayal of Pistorius as a religious man with a deep fear of crime who was in a loving relationship with Steenkamp. He accused Pistorius of tailoring his testimony to fit in with the evidence.
Known as the Blade Runner because of his J-shaped prosthetic running blades, Pistorius has been free on 1 million rand ($95,000) bail since February last year.
The charges have derailed the running career of the winner of six Paralympic gold medals and cost Pistorius sponsorship deals withNike Inc. (NKE), Luxottica Group SpA (LUX)’s Oakley andOssur hf, the Icelandic company that manufacturers the blades he uses.
Pistorius was the first double amputee to compete at the Olympic Games in London in 2012.
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