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At Pistorius Trial, Witness Re-Enacts Screams Pistorius Is Accused of ‘Sinister’ Aside During Trial Break
(about 4 hours later)
The South African courtroom where Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star, is facing murder charges echoed to the haunting sounds of screaming on Tuesday as a defense witness re-enacted what she said were loud wails made by a man with a high-pitched voice at the athlete’s home on the night his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, was shot to death. The trial of Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee South African track star, took a bizarre turn on Tuesday when a lawyer claimed that during an adjournment, the athlete asked a close friend of the woman he is accused of murdering, “How can you sleep at night?”
The testimony was designed to support a defense assertion that screams heard at Mr. Pistorius’s home in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013, were those of a man in agony. Prosecution witnesses said earlier in the trial that they had heard a woman screaming as shots were fired. Mr. Pistorius denied the accusation both directly and through his defense team.
Mr. Pistorius, 27, has said that he shot and killed Ms. Steenkamp, 29, by mistake, thinking she was an intruder and firing four rounds from a handgun through a locked bathroom door at his home in the capital, Pretoria. The episode was said to have taken place during the 27th day of his trial in Pretoria, South Africa, on charges of murdering Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law school graduate, in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013. While the prosecution says he gunned her down after an argument, Mr. Pistorius, 27, says he mistook her for an intruder. She died when he fired four shots from a handgun through the door of a bathroom she had locked herself in.
By his account, he screamed loudly when he realized what had happened. The prosecution says he committed premeditated murder — an offense that carries a minimum 25-year jail term — by shooting Ms. Steenkamp, a model and law school graduate, after the couple argued. Earlier, defense witnesses said they heard loud wails from a man with a high-pitched voice at the athlete’s home in a gated complex in Pretoria, the South African capital, on the night Ms. Steenkamp was shot to death.
Two neighbors testified on Tuesday that the screams that they had heard were made by a man. The testimony was apparently intended by the defense to rebut evidence by prosecution witnesses that they heard a woman screaming as shots were fired.
But those arguments were accompanied by a less obvious drama relating to Kim Myers, a close friend of Ms. Steenkamp’s, who was sitting in a part of the courtroom reserved for families and friends close to the wooden dock where Mr. Pistorius is seated.
“My client Kim Myers was approached by Oscar Pistorius in court today and, in a very sinister tone, was asked, ‘How can you sleep at night?' ” a lawyer for Ms. Myers, Ian Levitt, said in a statement reported by journalists in the courtroom.
“My client views this unwelcome approach as extremely disturbing and I have been in communication with the national prosecuting authorities as well as the investigating officer,” Mr. Levitt said. “All other parties have been informed. My client will remain focused on the trial and will continue to attend court in support of Reeva.”
Mr. Pistorius denied the accusation. “No, I haven’t spoken to her,” he told reporters, adding, in reference to her and her family: “I haven’t spoken to them for a year and a half. I walk past them in the corridors and hold doors open for them but they don’t look me in the eye.”
A member of Mr. Pistorius’s legal team, Brian Webber, also said the athlete denied the accusation, The Associated Press reported.
Mr. Levitt said Mr. Pistorius might have been troubled by public remarks by the Myers family and might have come to “the slanted view that they’re against him.”
It is not clear what effect the disputed incident may have on the course of the televised trial, which is scheduled to run until mid-May before closing arguments by both sides and possibly weeks of deliberations by Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa, who will pronounce the verdict assisted by two assessors.
In testimony on Tuesday, two neighbors of Mr. Pistorius said they heard a man scream the night of the killing.
Mike Nhlengethwa, who lived next door to Mr. Pistorius, said he had heard “very loud” cries from a “very high-pitched voice.”Mike Nhlengethwa, who lived next door to Mr. Pistorius, said he had heard “very loud” cries from a “very high-pitched voice.”
“The way he was crying — the cry we heard was a really desperate one,” he said. “It was very loud, like he was in danger.” “The cry we heard was a really desperate one,” he said. “It was very loud, like he was in danger.”
The man was screaming at one point, “no please, please, please, no,” Mr. Nhlengethwa said. The man was screaming at one point, “No, please, please, please, no,” Mr. Nhlengethwa said.
Another neighbor, Rika Motshuane, said she “only heard a man crying, very loud.”Another neighbor, Rika Motshuane, said she “only heard a man crying, very loud.”
“If I could have heard a female also screaming, I think I would have reflected it” in her initial statement to the police, she said, adding that she had not heard gunshots.
“The crying was very loud and very close,” she said. “I even thought it could be inside the house.”
Invited to imitate the sounds she had heard, Ms. Motshuane took a sip of water and screamed in a way that reporters in the courtroom described on Twitter as “a howl of pain,” “disturbing” and “dramatic.”Invited to imitate the sounds she had heard, Ms. Motshuane took a sip of water and screamed in a way that reporters in the courtroom described on Twitter as “a howl of pain,” “disturbing” and “dramatic.”
The trial is being broadcast live but, under rules devised before hearings began in early March, witnesses may request that their image not be shown. Both Mr. Nhlengethwa and Ms. Motshuane made that request on Tuesday. The rest of the courtroom was shown on television, and the testimony of both witnesses was clearly audible. The trial is being broadcast live but, under rules devised before hearings began in early March, witnesses may request that their image not be shown. Mr. Nhlengethwa and Ms. Motshuane both made that request on Tuesday. The rest of the courtroom was shown on television, and the testimony of witnesses was clearly audible.
For the second successive day, the trial adjourned early because defense witnesses were not present. Mr. Pistorius’s lawyer, Barry Roux, said the case was proceeding more quickly than he had planned because the prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, was asking fewer questions than he had expected. The hearings are set to resume on Thursday, after a public holiday Wednesday for national elections. Mr. Roux said that the defense might wind up its case by next Tuesday, making way for final arguments by both sides followed by deliberations by Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa, who will pronounce the verdict. There are no jury trials in South Africa. For the second successive day, the trial adjourned early because defense witnesses were not present. Mr. Pistorius’s lawyer, Barry Roux, said the case was proceeding more quickly than he had planned because the prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, was asking fewer questions than he had expected. The hearings are set to resume on Thursday, after a public holiday Wednesday for national elections. Mr. Roux said the defense might wind up its case by next Tuesday.