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| Oscar Pistorius, holds his head in his hands in the dock during cross examination of a witnesses in court in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, March 18, 2014. Pistorius is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day, 2013. |
JOHANNESBURG
(AP) -- Prosecutors at Oscar Pistorius' murder trial have presented a
"golden thread" of evidence suggesting Reeva Steenkamp screamed before
she died, leaving the double-amputee athlete with "serious questions" to
answer and his defense likely hinging on his own testimony, a legal
expert in South Africa said.
Three neighbors
say they heard a woman scream before and during the deadly gunshots
coming from Pistorius' home in the early hours of Valentine's Day last
year. The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Steenkamp's body said
it would have been "abnormal" for her not to scream from some of her
injuries.
A police ballistics expert concluded
that the first shot Pistorius fired through a toilet door hit Steenkamp
in the hip and caused her to collapse, but didn't immediately kill her.
The second shot missed. From the policeman's testimony, Steenkamp
likely had time to yell out before she was hit by two more shots as she
covered her head with her arms in a desperate attempt to protect
herself.
"Suddenly what we have is Oscar
Pistorius firing at Reeva Steenkamp while her hands are covering her
head while she's screaming in the toilet, and that's murder," said
Marius du Toit, a defense lawyer and former state prosecutor who says he
has worked on at least 100 murder cases.
Du
Toit, who is following the trial but not involved, said the prosecution
has "definitely" made a case for murder against the Olympic runner for
the fatal shooting of Steenkamp, and Pistorius' defense must now
respond.
Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel has so
far presented a specific line of evidence compellingly, du Toit said.
Using the accounts of neighbors and backing them up with the expert
opinion of pathologist Gert Saayman and police ballistics investigator
Capt. Christiaan Mangena, Nel may have shown to the court that it was
"reasonable" that Steenkamp screamed during the four shots fired at her,
du Toit said.
"There's definitely a golden
thread here," du Toit told The Associated Press in a telephone
interview, using a courtroom term that refers to the prosecution's duty
to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. "A golden thread of someone
who was screaming and who was shot. The objective facts, which are the
injuries she sustained, coupled with the expert opinion, tied with your
circumstantial evidence presented by witnesses. And if that ties up with
one another then Oscar has got a major problem."
Prosecutors
say they will wrap up their case next week, the fourth week of the
trial, by calling four or five more witnesses. The defense will then
present its case. High court authorities in Gauteng province said in a
statement Sunday that the trial will be halted for the week beginning
April 7, and then resume from April 14 until May 16.
Pistorius,
27, was a celebrated track athlete who made history as the first
amputee to run against able bodied runners at the Olympics after having
his lower legs amputated as a baby because of a congenital condition. He
now faces going to prison for 25 years to life if convicted of
premeditated murder. If found guilty of murder without premeditation for
killing Steenkamp, who was 29, Pistorius faces a minimum 15-year
sentence.
Pistorius says he shot Steenkamp by
mistake believing she was an intruder in his home and has maintained
throughout that he was the only person to scream, partly after realizing
his tragic error.
In a court case being
broadcast live on television to millions and followed by over 100
reporters at the Pretoria courthouse, Pistorius' chief defense lawyer,
Barry Roux, has attracted attention for his cross-examination of
prosecution witnesses, and his consistent criticism of an apparently
flawed police investigation into the shooting in the pre-dawn hours of
Feb. 14, 2013.
Du Toit identified two areas he
believes will be crucial to Pistorius' defense: The world-famous
runner's own testimony and evidence given by the defense's forensic and
ballistics experts.
Defense lawyer Roux has
made it clear that Pistorius' experts will offer another version
regarding the shots that killed Steenkamp, arguing that Pistorius fired
with "double-tap" bursts that gave Steenkamp no time to scream, and so
Pistorius did not realize he was shooting at Steenkamp.
Du Toit also noted that police experts did not test if parts of Pistorius' story were plausible.
"So all they (the defense) have to do is say, `well you never bothered so we tested it and this is what we found," du Toit said.
But,
ultimately, Pistorius has admitted killing Steenkamp and he is expected
to explain his decision to fire four times into a small cubicle from
close range. That will open him up to cross-examination by the
prosecution.
"The only question is whether
there was intent and intent is subjective," du Toit said. "That means
the accused must come and dispel that. Oscar (testifying) is definitely
going to be the key, but I wonder if it's going to be good for him."
