BREAKING: Oscar Pistorius Trial Judge Rejects Neighbors’ Testimony

The judge in Oscar Pistorius’s trial for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp said the court couldn’t rely on the testimony of most of the neighbors who testified.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, 66, said she discounted the witnesses who said they heard a woman scream after the four shots Pistorius fired at a door in his bathroom, saying because of the gravity of her wounds, Steenkamp wouldn’t have been able to shout and shriek. Some of them were also too far away.

“I am of the view that the probability is that some witnesses failed to separate what they knew personally, from what they heard from other people or from what they gathered from the media,” she said.

Masipa, 66, was addressing the high court in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital, after a 41-day trial that started March 3. While the prosecution argues that Pistorius deliberately fired four hollow-point bullets at Steenkamp in a bathroom at his home after an argument, the defense says he mistook her for an intruder, and her death was a “huge, unfortunate mistake.”

Masipa said she would rely on phone records rather than the witnesses to give an objective time line of the shooting.

She also rejected the state’s presentation of WhatsApp Inc. messages between Pistorius and Steenkamp showing they had argued, and from the defense indicating they were in a loving relationship.

“None of this proves anything,” she said.

Masipa can either acquit Pistorius or hand down one of three guilty verdicts: premeditated murder, murder in the second degree or culpable homicide, which is the negligent unlawful killing of a person, according to legal analysts such as Ulrich Roux, a director at Johannesburg-based BDK Attorneys.

If found guilty of planning to kill Steenkamp, Pistorius would face a minimum of 25 years in jail, while a verdict of murder without premeditation may carry a sentence of at least 15 years. A culpable homicide decision could mean as many as 15 years in prison.

Should Masipa agree with the defense’s contention that the shooting was a reflex and the Paralympian lacked cognitive capacity, he could face a lesser sentence or even acquittal.

Known as the Blade Runner because of his J-shaped prosthetic running blades, Pistorius, 27, was the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics. He’s been free on 1 million rand ($91,500) bail since February last year. If found guilty, Pistorius’s bail will be revoked and he will have to submit a new application, Roux said.

Source: BusinessWeek