Paralympian Oscar Pistorius “woke from his bed, put on his prosthesis, walked seven metres... and shot her”.
This is according to Gerrie Nel, the prosecutor who is charging the Blade Runner with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend, supermodel Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot dead through Pistorius’s bathroom door on Valentine’s Day.
Pistorius started crying in court on Tuesday as his lawyer denied the State’s allegation that the murder of his girlfriend was premeditated.
Pistorius sat slumped in the courtroom, at times weeping with his head cupped in his hands as the State placed premeditated murder charges against him.
“Are you okay Mr Pistorius?” asked magistrate Desmond Nair as the Paralympian, dressed in a black suit and blue T-shirt, took his place in the dock.
With his hands clasped together before him, he shrugged his shoulders, his eyes welling with tears.
“Under the circumstances?” asked Nair.
He nodded soundlessly, no words coming out of his mouth.
Then began the State’s arguments into why it believes the man accused of gunning down his model girlfriend on Valentine’s Day last week should answer to Schedule 6 charges – premeditated murder, which carries a heavier sentence.
“The deceased was shot three times while she was in the bathroom. The door to the toilet was broken from the outside. We say from there that it was locked and therefore broken open.
“We say when he said he thought it was a burglar, that was pre-planning because why would a burglar lock himself in the bathroom? The only reasonable inference is that the applicant armed himself, walked seven metres to the bathroom and shot the deceased while she was in the toilet.
“He would have been in bed with the deceased,” said Nel.
He argued further that when Pistorius told a friend he had mistaken Steenkamp for a burglar, it was pre-planning because he walked from his bed with the intention to kill the burglar.
“Premeditation doesn’t require months of planning. Even in his version, he walked into the bathroom with intent to kill the burglar. He walks into the bathroom, breaks the door and shoots and kills,” said Nel.
But the defence had a different version, saying Pistorius possibly broke open the bathroom door to rescue Steenkamp once he realised he had shot her by mistake.
“Was the door broken to kill her or to take her out once he realised who it was?” argued defence lawyer, Barry Roux, as his client broke down and wept uncontrollably but quietly in the dock.
He challenged the argument that it was weird for Pistorius to have mistaken her for a burglar as he lived in a highly secure complex.
“Are we immune to what’s happening out there? I will put to you cases where husbands shot dead their wives because they thought they were burglars.
“Is that pre-planned... when he says I thought it was a burglar?,” argued Roux.
He further argued that high-security complexes gave a false sense of security.
“Your worship, how many cases should I bring to you of murders in safe security complexes? You just need to open a newspaper,” he said.
In response, Nel asked why Steenkamp would have locked herself in the bathroom when it was just her and Pistorius in the house.
“She wakes up, early morning, then locks herself up in the bathroom. Why would she do that? Why?” asked Nel, adding that Pistorius had plenty of time to consider what he was doing, as he had first put on his prosthetic legs before walking seven metres and firing shots at Steenkamp. Once he had shot Steenkamp, Pistorius carried her down the stairs to the living room.
The courtroom was too small for all the media, so an accreditation process took place. Reporters and cameramen crawled under tables and got on to chairs to be first on the list. The case continues.