Oscar Trial: When the willow meets the meranti
Gunshots heard the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed could have been the sound of a cricket bat striking a door, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: Defence attorney Barry Roux attends on March 28, 2013 the bail application appeal of his client, South African Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, at the North Gauteng Hight Court in Pretoria. AFP PHOTO / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN
The suggestion was made by Barry Roux, SC, for murder-accused Oscar Pretorius, as he was cross-examining witness Michelle Burger, who said she heard the shots.
Roux asked: “Do you know what it sounds like when an English willow wood [cricket bat] makes hard contact with a meranti door?”
With her house 177m from Pistorius’s townhouse, where Steenkamp was killed, Roux asked her if this sound would not resemble gunshots.
“Only an expert can say, but I doubt it. A gunshot is extremely loud,” she replied.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel lost his composure at one point during Roux’s questioning.
He got up and addressed Judge Thokozile Masipa, complaining that the witness was being badgered.
Nel mistakenly addressed the judge as “Madam” instead of “My Lady”.
His prompt apology evoked laughter from the public gallery, relieving the tension.
The State will try to prove that Pistorius committed premeditated murder when he shot and killed Steenkamp through a toilet door in his Pretoria home on February 14 last year.
In addition, he is charged with premeditated murder, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and recklessly discharging a fireram in public.
Pistorius contends he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he shot through the toilet door.
– Sapa
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