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Oscar Pistorius Trial to Resume on May 5 Pistorius Trial Adjourns With Key Witness in Doubt
(about 3 hours later)
PRETORIA, South Africa — The trial of Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, adjourned on Thursday until May 5 after the prosecution requested time out to deal with other cases. PRETORIA, South Africa — After 25 days of testimony, the trial of Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee South African track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, adjourned on Thursday amid a report that a crucial defense witness will not take the stand when it resumes on May 5.
Before testimony began on the trial’s 25th day, Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa offered an unusual admonition to people following the trial on a real-time television link from an adjacent courtroom, saying she had received reports that they were behaving in an unruly manner — “jumping on benches, cheering and doing what they like” — and that they should desist. Agence France-Presse quoted the witness, Reggie Perumal, a private forensic pathologist, as saying that he would not testify but declining to give further details.
“It is not an entertainment place,” Judge Masipa said, “It is not a picnic nest.” If the spectators did not abide by the usual courtroom standards, she said, “security will ensure that they leave.” The news agency said its reporter had contacted Mr. Perumal and asked if he would be testifying when the trial resumed. “No, ma’am,” the pathologist replied, adding, “I think you’re aware that I can’t say anything right now.”
The final session before the four-day Easter break, which is widely observed in South Africa, was devoted to testimony by Roger Dixon, a forensic witness for the defense who has acknowledged under cross-examination that he has no expertise in areas such as ballistics. Mr. Perumal could not be reached independently for comment.
His testimony is important because it challenges the prosecution’s depiction of the four shots Mr. Pistorius, 27, fired through a locked toilet-cubicle door at his home in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013, believing — by his account — that at least one intruder was inside. Instead, the hollow-point rounds killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29. The news seemed to be another setback for the defense after the state prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, grilled Roger Dixon, a forensics expert called by Mr. Pistorius’s team, on Thursday about events in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013, when Mr. Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, saying he mistook her for an intruder. He has been charged with premeditated murder.
Mr. Dixon, whose credentials and integrity have been challenged in aggressive questioning by the prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, has produced sound recordings intended to demonstrate similarities between gunshots and the sound of Mr. Pistorius beating down the cubicle door with a cricket bat after the shooting. During almost five days of intensive and withering cross-examination, Mr. Nel sought to highlight inconsistencies in Mr. Pistorius’s account of events when, the athlete says, he opened fire on a locked toilet cubicle door believing at least one intruder was inside.
Mr. Dixon has also testified that the shooting may have left its victim in a different position than the prosecution has said. Mr. Nel has also forced Mr. Dixon to acknowledge that he trained as a geologist and does not have expertise in several forensic areas, including ballistics and pathology. Some of Mr. Dixon’s testimony also appeared to contradict Mr. Pistorius’s own evidence.
The details reflect a fundamental dispute between the defense and the prosecution over the circumstances of the shooting, which Mr. Nel maintains followed an argument while Mr. Pistorius has called the killing a mistake and an accident. A key point of contention between defense and prosecution has been testimony by a state pathologist, Gert Saayman, who said that an autopsy examination of Ms. Steenkamp’s stomach showed she had eaten around two hours before her death.
Mr. Pistorius, 27, said he and Ms. Steenkamp, 29, were asleep at that time and could not therefore have begun arguing, as the prosecution contends.
Mr. Saayman has testified that “to the best of my recollection” he and Mr. Perumal had been in agreement about the examination of Ms. Steenkamp’s stomach contents.
Last week, the defense called another expert, Jan Botha, a former state pathologist, who said the technique used to establish whether Mr. Steenkamp had eaten — known as “gastric emptying” — was controversial and imprecise.
Before testimony began on Thursday, Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa offered an unusual admonition to people following the hearings on a live television link from an adjacent courtroom, saying she had received reports that they were behaving in an unruly manner — “jumping on benches, cheering and doing what they like” — and that they should stop.
“It is not an entertainment place,” Judge Masipa said. “It is not a picnic nest.” If the spectators do not abide by usual courtroom standards, she said, “security will ensure that they leave.”