Reeva Steenkamp fall position in question

The position Reeva Steenkamp fell in when shot was in question during murder-accused Oscar Pistorius’s trial in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned ballistics expert Thomas “Wollie” Wolmarans on Steenkamp’s position when bullets struck her and the possibility that if she was standing that “bullet B” [as referred to in the evidence before court] would have missed her.

“With her right hip completely destroyed, if I can say that, she must’ve fallen,” Wolmarans said.

“My lady, if she was sitting flat on the floor, [bullets] C and D would’ve missed her. I think evidence is there that she was not sitting on the toilet.”

Nel told Wolmarans he had to go over certain possibilities.

The paralympic athlete is charged with murdering his girlfriend Steenkamp. He shot her dead through the locked door of his toilet in his Pretoria home on February 14 last year.

Pistorius has denied guilt, saying he thought she was an intruder about to open the door and attack him. The State contends he shot her during an argument.

On Monday, Wolmarans said he could not agree with Nel that Steenkamp was shot in the hip, fell back because she could not support her own body weight, and fell onto the magazine rack and was leaning forward when she was shot in the arm and the head.

Steenkamp’s mother June Steenkamp, her cousin, and the Myers family were present in court on Monday. They were flanked by two women from the African National Congress Women’s League.

Pistorius’s sister Aimee Pistorius was also in court with other family members.

Pistorius is also charged with three contraventions of the Firearms Control Act — one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public.

He has denied guilt on these charges as well.

Wolmarans was excused from the witness stand.

– Sapa