The Truth about the Pistorius Trial: Why Oscar's in Limbo

Oscar and Reeva

What is undisputed

Every eight hours a woman is killed by her partner in South Africa. This is a terrifying statistic. They do it because they know they can get away with it.

Reeva had only been seeing Oscar for three months when he shot and killed her.

Judge Masipa's ruling

I did try to guess which way the Judge would go in my blog, 'Pistorius Verdict - What Will It Be?'. I couldn't have predicted the illogical conclusions she somehow reached.

Masipa said the charge of premeditated murder was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt because the evidence was purely circumstantial: 'There are just not enough facts to support such a finding.'

(She ignores the main and most relevant fact, that Reeva was shot and killed by Oscar.)

I don't agree with her as anyone who's read my blog will know. I believe this was murder, not premeditated because I don't think he's a cold-blooded killer but a crime of passion, committed on the spur of the moment but committed with deliberate intent.

Reeva Steenkamp

Masipa also ruled out a lesser murder charge, saying

'Clearly [Pistorius] did not subjectively foresee this as a possibility that he would kill the person behind the door, let alone the deceased as he thought she was in the bedroom.' (I'll ignore her poor grammar)

How can she rule this out? What does she think he thought would happen if he repeatedly shot at someone, confined to such a small space, with Black Talon ammunition? Isn't it probable that death would result? Couldn’t he have foreseen this? Not according to Masipa. Her statement presupposes that Pistorius is telling the truth (although she says she finds him 'untruthful'), that he actually believed an intruder had taken the trouble to break in and lock themselves in the toilet, that he was shouting at Reeva, who he believed to be in the bedroom to call the police, that for some reason, she didn’t respond to this to say ‘It’s only me, Oscar’. If he really did kill Reeva in cold blood, he'd be perfectly capable of lying about it. Does she believe that white, famous people don't lie? Not even to save their skins?

Oscar's gun wishlist

But then she also said this, which is surely a direct contradiction.

'A reasonable person, with a similar disability, would have foreseen that the person behind the door would be killed, and the accused failed to take action to avoid this.'

So what does she mean, how did she come to her judgment when she holds these conflicting opinions of exactly the same event?

Then, having conceded he's untruthful, she  claims this is irrelevant. How can this be irrelevant? It goes to the very heart of the case. If she's aware that he's lying, why does she take his word for so many things? Her reasoning is at fault.

In choosing what to consider or reject in the testimony, she’s almost overwhelmingly discounted the inconsistencies in Oscar’s story and any proof of his extreme volatility and tendency to violence and continually given him the benefit of the doubt, which leads her to a verdict of culpable homicide, essentially negligence:

'Pistorius was "negligent" when he killed Steenkamp.'

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Negligence is forgetting to feed the goldfish or leaving the car unlocked. Not picking up a loaded gun, running into a bathroom and shooting at someone so terrifyingly dangerous that they've locked themselves in the toilet. 

Schedule: I've commented in another blog that the judge's primary concern seemed to be when they would break for tea and a desire not to see proceedings go on too long. It worried me that everyone seemed to believe the trial should only take a couple of weeks and that it would be a failing if it were to run over. Surely it takes as long as it takes.

Judge Judy: 'If it doesn't make sense, it usually isn't true'

Discounted evidence: Also, because the police investigation didn't follow proper protocol, evidence has been discounted which could shed light on what happened. For instance, the medication and the needles. Weren't these even photographed in position? Don't they have CSI in South Africa? You only have to watch one show to know this. Oscar's team has claimed that this was a herbal remedy and no one has investigated it further. I don't know of any herbal remedy that you inject. Why hasn't anyone asked what it was? It really struck me that the judge didn't ask any questions at all. Judge Judy would have systematically dismantled Oscar's story - see my 'Would Judge Judy Have Done a Better Job?' blog.

Oscar's story: Masipa deems it highly improbable that he could have made all this up so quickly. Why is it improbable? He didn't really have a choice. It's not as if it's a particularly credible story. And she  believes the screams came from Oscar even though there’s no evidence to back this up.

Reeva: A Mother's Story by June Steenkamp

Reeva: A Mother's Story: I've just finished June Steenkamp's book about Reeva. It's horrible to think how afraid Reeva was and how much she suffered. I'm not sure that I could forgive the person who caused all that pain. She said that she hoped the trial would help to unearth the truth of what happened the 'night of the accident' as Oscar and his press cronies like to call it. She's disappointed but I don't think she should be. Any reasonable person watching the case unfold knows what happened. It simply wasn’t reflected in the verdict.

Below I've tried to provide answers (however unpalatable) to some of the unanswered (and often unasked) questions that concerned me watching the trial. For myself. For June and Barry.

Question: Why would an intruder break in, then lock themselves in the toilet? This makes no sense. We all know what Judge Judy would say, say it with me: 'If it doesn't make sense, it usually isn't true.'

Answer: There was no intruder. Reeva ran from Oscar and locked herself in the toilet, afraid for her life.

[More on ‘If it doesn’t make sense, it usually isn’t true.’
Here’s an example from Barry Roux. He purports that a neighbour would not have been able to hear shots from Pistorius’s house and then suggests to the same woman’s husband that the sounds he heard were Pistorius trying to break the toilet door down with a cricket bat. If his case is that she wouldn’t be able to hear gunfire, how does he think that her husband could have heard a cricket bat hitting a door? Why doesn't Nel question any of this?]

Early photo shoot

Question: If an intruder did break in only to lock themselves in the toilet, would you be scared of them, especially if you're the one with the weapon?

Answer: It would be highly unlikely. Let’s first remember that Masipa has confirmed that Oscar was not suffering from GAD (but she doesn't seem sure of this, or anything, see below and my blog, Oscar Pistorius Has GAD). He was the one with the power, with the firearm. In an absolute rage, he chased and shot Reeva when she was utterly defenceless.

Question: Although the court found that Pistorius did not have GAD, why does Masipa say:

‘It is clear that Mr Pistorius has a psychiatric illness’.

Answer: I'm really not sure. It shows that she hasn't really understood the result of his psychiatric evaluation. Or is she just looking for another excuse to let him go?

Question: Why didn't Oscar fire a warning shot? He had the presence of mind to consider the possibility of a ricochet hurting him, but not to fire a warning shot.

Answer: He didn’t intend to scare an intruder away –  he knew there was no intruder and that Reeva was trapped in the toilet. He intended to kill whoever was behind the door. And he knew he was firing at Reeva.

Loving-hearted

Question: At this stage, having trapped ‘the intruder’ and having the upper hand, why didn’t he attempt to call for help, either from security or the police?

Answer: Because he knew that he was in no actual danger, that it was Reeva behind the door and that she was unarmed and scared to death.

Question: Why did Reeva not tell Oscar where she was when he came into the bathroom shouting with a gun?

Answer: She must have called to him and was probably screaming in fear and pleading for her life. 

Question: Once Oscar (claims he finally) realised that he had shot Reeva, why didn’t he call emergency services? Instead, his story has him breaking the door down with a cricket bat, then he says: 'I sat over Reeva and I cried'. ‘I don't know how long I was there for'.

Answer: He couldn’t run the risk of calling for help until she was dead and could no longer implicate him because he would be charged with attempted murder. There could be no witnesses. This is the only thing that makes sense.

Three months earlier

Question: Why did Oscar call ‘Uncle’ Johan Stander rather than the emergency services?

Answer: See above. Part of the answer is in the question. He knew that his friend would begin damage limitation for him.

Question: Why didn't Stander call the emergency services as soon as he learned Reeva had been shot?

Answer: See above. He needed time to orchestrate the cover-up. 

Question: Which of these statements is true? ‘She wasn’t breathing’ as he found Reeva in the toilet or ‘She was struggling to breathe’. And, if the latter is true, why didn't he call for help?

Answer: He had to let her die but he still wants to be seen as a hero for trying to revive her.

Question: There was another phone that was never investigated. Why didn't Pistorius give this phone to the police?

Answer: There must have been something on the phone he didn't want them to see.

I'm glad that June Steenkamp points out some of the inconsistencies in Oscar's 'story' (see my blog 'Who Put the Story in Pistorius?'). Plus I discovered several facts that were new to me from reading the book, discussed below.

Oscar had insisted Reeva stay alone in his house over Christmas and New Year. This means that he didn't feel it was dangerous for a lone woman to look after his property while he was away. We have to assume that he wouldn't have done this if he thought there were any actual risk to Reeva. This rather belies his so-called GAD as does the next point.

There was a broken window he didn't think was worth fixing. Surely, if he really were concerned about security, he would have arranged for someone to repair this.

There might have been a stray ladder in his garden. See above.

 

Reeva took two cell phones to the bathroom. We're supposed to believe that she took a phone to light the way because a bulb was out but why would she take two? The probable reason is she wanted to call for help. Or that one of the phones was Oscar's?

Det. Hilton Botha

[Botha said that two iPhones and two BlackBerrys had been found at the scene and none had been used to call the police or paramedics. This implies Reeva didn't have a chance to call anyone before Oscar chased and shot her.]

Masipa said that Reeva could have had her phone with her for a number of reasons but to pick one was to delve into the realm of speculation. It's all speculation, isn't it? Because if Oscar deliberately killed her, he's not going to tell us and he made sure that Reeva can't say anything.

[Roux said that Botha had not asked to look at another of Pistorius's phones - the one Oscar did use to call for medical help. 'That call was made at 3.20am', according to Roux. Botha replied that Pistorius had not told him about this other phone.]

Reeva's valentine to Oscar

Oscar had not bought Reeva a Valentine. Although everyone knows about Reeva’s Valentine for Oscar, he had not got her anything. Why?

Reeva was OCD about tidiness. It's extremely unlikely that she would have left her jeans on the floor so why were they there? Is this evidence of a cover-up?

Reeva intended to leave and had packed her clothes. This implies that she might have broken up with him. Perhaps he could not bear to be rejected.

[Roux said that Steenkamp might have locked the toilet door to protect herself when she heard Pistorius shouting that there was a burglar.

He also said there were two dogs in the yard outside.

If there was an intruder (and we know there wasn’t so this very fact makes Oscar’s story very suspect), wouldn’t the dogs have barked? Why hasn't anyone asked about this?]

A kiss goodbye

For more on the media's response to the trial, which I feel has been singularly biased, see my blog, Oscar Pistorius: ‘I don’t remember what I’ve forgotten’.

Now it seems that Oscar is in limbo while the powers that be in South African justice decide his fate. Some might say that he's halfway to his ultimate destination.

Pistorius Verdict - What Will It Be?

'I just want to love and be loved'

This time I’m going to start with Reeva Steenkamp, an innocent girl, who was killed by her boyfriend, who only wanted to love and be loved. I hate the way in the trial, they’re only allowed to refer to her as ‘the deceased’. This seems pretty callous and also sounds strange when they say things like ‘the deceased was sitting up in bed’. Reeva existed; she has a name; she has an identity; she’s not just the person Oscar Pistorius killed.

Gerrie Nel/Barry Roux

Again, I’m extremely disappointed by both lawyers’ lack of clarity and their failure to summarise their main arguments or present any kind of cogent, credible narrative of what they believe happened. It’s like they’re intent on incoherence. I can only hope that a better mind than mine (the judge’s I hope though so far she hasn’t shown much sign that she’s listening and I’m not sure I blame her) can see some method in their madness. Perhaps she’s hoping that the written heads of argument will make more sense.

I want Gerrie Nel to be resolute, sure, convincing. He has a good case. He only needs to state it. We need him to speak for Reeva Steenkamp because she cannot speak for herself. Instead, he rambles on his peripatetic and seemingly aimless course. I don’t need to worry about him losing momentum or focus because he never shows any. Luckily for him, Barry Roux is just as prone to an excess of the type of verbiage that actually obfuscates meaning. Oh no, I’m doing it myself now!

Reeva's parents just want the truth

First of all, why does Nel even engage with any of the nonsense brought up by Roux – whether someone moved the gun a couple of inches or not? It doesn’t matter because no one is claiming that Oscar did not use the gun to kill Reeva. His job is not to prove that the police are beyond reproach. His job is to prove that Oscar is guilty. He gives Roux’s reasoning validity by responding to it.

What he should be doing now is not nit-picking but establishing what is salient, what he wants the judge to consider. I’m not clear why Milady isn’t asking any questions. Is she even listening?

Second, he needs to leave the metaphors at home. They’re neither clever nor beneficial to his case. In fact, they’re the opposite.

To call each piece of circumstantial evidence a feather implies that individually, even collectively, they carry little weight when in fact they do; they have enormous substance.

The dropping the baton analogy concentrates on Oscar’s evidence instead of his actions on the night/morning in question and I find it somewhat insensitive considering that Reeva died so horribly. But I would argue that, if Nel considers this the baton of truth, in giving evidence, Oscar never even picked it up. Unfortunately, in Nel’s final statement, it’s he who continually drops the baton, losing his place, leaving the book he needs at home, etc. Justice is at stake here. Get it together.

As for a snowball of lies – that implies that they’re gaining power and weight. They’re not.

‘In his attempt to prevent a domino effect on the mosaic pieces’. Let’s not go there. If you need to use an analogy, stick to one, easily relatable image not three or four. Shakespeare, he ain't.

Nel’s statement: ‘He has disqualified himself from his version being accepted by the court’ is a weak one. He killed her. Nel needs to emphasise this.

Third, the baker’s dozen. I’m at a loss as to why he settles on this particular set of points to highlight although it’s not a bad policy to point out a few flaws in the defence case (there are so many to choose from), such as the pledge that a witness would testify that Oscar screams like a woman so neighbours could have mistaken his screams for those of Reeva Steenkamp. The defence called a witness (note that it was a female not a male witness) to record an imitation of the scream they had heard but never played the recording in court. Nel is right to conclude that the only explanation must be that ‘it doesn't advance their case’. Roux still contends, somewhat pointlessly, that: ‘It’s not a female screaming. It’s a male in a high-pitched voice’. Even Oscar can't replicate it. Give it up now, Barry.

Oscar Pistorius

But Nel makes his point or rather fails to make it because he’s completely unable to express himself clearly. He says of the screams:‘He had to stop because she was dead’ and could no longer scream. But he’s implied here that Oscar ‘was’ screaming. He wasn’t and Nel doesn’t think he was but the fault is in how he’s put it. It was always Reeva and it was her who stopped when she was no longer able to.

Don’t forget this either: ‘The deceased was fully clothed when she was shot’. How did she manage to get dressed without Oscar noticing? And why did she get dressed and take her phone to the toilet?

Nel: ‘Equally devastating is the vagueness of his version as to how and when the police would have tampered with the scene.’ But who cares at this stage? It wasn’t relevant in the first place.

He does make this point though. In the unlikely event that your partner believes you are an intruder and he pursues you to the toilet with a gun, first shouting then silent, is it likely that you will stay completely quiet and not ask him not to shoot you? Why wouldn't Reeva have called out?

But at least the judge will be able to read through the whole thing at her leisure and see that there is a case there.

As for Roux, here’s his attempt to describe what happened. Apologies for the poor grammar – they’re his words, not mine.

‘Now you standing at the door. You vulnerable. You have the effect of the slow-burn over many years. You’re anxious. You’re trained as an athlete to react to sound.’

Sister: To run.

Me: Yeah – not to shoot and kill.

Trained to react to sound - to run not shoot

It is worth considering why everybody else in the same situation, including Oscar himself, would ask their partner whether they had heard anything. Sam Taylor confirmed that Oscar ‘went as far as waking her up on more than one occasion to ask her if she had heard something’. Why didn’t he do this with Reeva?

I don’t buy the ‘slow-burn’ theory or the domestic abuse line. I don't think the judge does either. Victims of long-term abuse sometimes do snap and attack someone but usually their abuser, not their innocent girlfriend. Of course Roux wants us to believe that Oscar thought there was an intruder, a threat although we know that there was no real break-in, no actual danger.

Layout of the upstairs

Again, I have to ask if Oscar would really feel that threatened by an intruder who broke in and then locked themselves in the toilet while he was standing outside the door holding a gun loaded with Black Talon ammunition. Come on.

Oscar: 'I felt trapped, as my bedroom door was locked and I have limited mobility on my stumps.' Who locked the bedroom door? Him. Who had the key to the door? Him. How exactly is he trapped?

Roux asks: ‘Why would he call for help for her if he’d just tried to kill her?’

Oh Barry, don’t be so disingenuous. What else could he do? If he didn’t call for help, how would this fit with his ‘story’ that it was an ‘accident’? Of course he had to call for help. But notice that he didn’t do this earlier when, by his own admission: ‘She was struggling to breathe’ and ‘I sat over Reeva and I cried’/'I don't know how long I was there for’ (as I said in my previous blog – presumably until she was no longer breathing and couldn’t implicate him). He only called for help after he was absolutely certain that she was dead. She was his girlfriend so he has to act upset. But it might not even have been acting. He could easily have experienced immediate remorse for his reckless actions. It doesn’t mean that he didn’t deliberately kill her.

But even when he finally decided to call for help …

Mr Pieter Baba

Stop a minute here and reflect that this was after Mr Baba (presumably not a friend of Oscar’s) had seen there were lights on and rung to ask if everything was ok and he had answered (having shot Reeva or the imagined intruder) ‘Alles ist ok’.

Why? He’d just shot someone. How could it all be ok?

Why would he need to delay calling for help – if it really had been a terrible accident? He would only do this to stage a scene or cover up a crime.

Then the crucial question is: Who did he eventually decide to call? Emergency services? No – he called his friend, the estate manager, Johan Stander. Why did he call his friend and not emergency services? And why isn't this in Nel's baker's dozen?

Then, from my previous blog: Why didn’t Stander call emergency services as soon as he learned Reeva had been shot?

Because Oscar and he must have decided they needed to initiate damage control. I like to think that by this stage Reeva was dead rather than lying there dying as they pondered what to do to save Oscar’s neck.

 

But why oh why did no one ask Stander why he chose not to call for help?

These can only be a series of stalling tactics to ensure that there was no possibility of Reeva being revived and to remove any evidence that could damn Oscar. Phones were taken and messages wiped.

It's a hard rain's a gonna fall

Roux asks why Nel didn’t chase up Oscar’s father to question him on the ammunition in the safe. But Nel could have easily asked Roux the same thing. Pistorius senior could have corroborated Oscar’s story but he wasn’t asked so didn’t. And why weren’t the policemen from the altercation in the car or Martyn Rooney from the incident in the restaurant called?

Roux makes a big deal about a tiny point, again supremely poorly expressed:

‘After the lunch adjournment, he was then in a position to increase the emotion.'
What he means is that the witness in question altered the emphasis of his testimony a little. The fact that he’s harping on about these tiny details shows that his case is weak. Unlike Nel though, he doesn’t have much choice.

Roux states that Nel’s case is based on the couple going down to eat together later. That isn’t so. Nel has only said that Reeva ate later; no one has said they delayed eating their meal. Roux’s point: ‘It does not explain common sense’.

Again, he fails to express himself. He means he doesn’t think this is common sense. We don’t need to explain common sense.

Roux mentions: ‘an adjustment disorder that developed after the alleged incident’.

It’s not an alleged incident. No one can dispute that there was an actual incident. Does he mean an alleged adjustment disorder?

On the bedside table

Roux: ‘Led to an exaggerated fight response … he decided to fire indiscriminately’.

Interesting how he gets this in and the judge doesn’t call him on it. Is she in a coma? When did the shot grouping become ‘indiscriminate’? Evidence proved exactly the opposite.

Roux says Oscar ‘felt very much on the backfoot, relying on his disability’. Since when was he relying on his disability? Is this a Freudian slip perhaps? Does Roux mean that the defence case is now dependent on Oscar’s disability?

Roux: ‘Did he foresee the possibility that the deceased was in the toilet?’

No – he always knew she was in the toilet.

 

'The question is whether the accused foresaw that Reeva Steenkamp was in the lavatory when he shot, and whether he had reconciled himself with that before shooting (i.e. if he did foresee it as possibly the case, did he simply not care and shoot anyway?).' That’s only the question if you believe the whole intruder line. He's trying to lead the judge here. Away from the truth.

Toilet door

‘Would it be wrong to arm himself?’ 

If you’re credulous enough to believe Oscar was defending himself against an intruder, you might think it was justifiable that he armed himself BUT then to shoot them four times through a locked door, was that justifiable?

'The striking of the door by a cricket bat would not be as loud’

But that’s exactly what Roux tried to prove. That the witnesses who thought they heard shots had heard the cricket bat instead.

It appears that Oscar is going to change his plea on the other charges. Roux states that Oscar admitted in testimony that he was partly culpable. He didn’t. He said sorry to the restaurant owners, offered to pay for the damage but he said that his only error was to take the gun believing that Darren Fresco had made it safe, i.e. It was Darren’s fault but Oscar was man enough to offer reparation.

Also seems as if they've given up on the GAD angle.

Then he keeps talking about objective facts. What’s an objective fact? Facts don't have opinions. Does he mean undisputed fact?

Alex Crawford: objectivity out the window

Next a brief word on Alex Crawford who once again seems somewhat biased in her reporting, rather pro-Oscar. Of Oscar’s yawning throughout, she lets us know that people (those experts she relies on, i.e. the general public) have Tweeted her to say that yawning is sometimes a reaction to stress. This is what she chooses to convey. It’s also a sign of lack of interest or tiredness but as always Crawford wants Oscar to have the benefit of the doubt. Then she mentions that Arnold Pistorius (no relation – oh hang on, yes he is a relation, Oscar’s uncle) has said to the reporters he’s so friendly with that Nel can't have it both ways with his defence. Hmm. He’s totally objective of course. She comments that Roux is ‘in fine form’ and describes his summation as ‘a weighty tomb’. She meant ‘tome’. Conveys that her mate, Uncle Arnold says of Roux, that ‘he’s done more than enough’.

Here’s a Tweet from her: 'Roux disproving fairly convincingly some of the neighbours recollection of emerg calls, timings and who spoke when …'.

Again, this is her opinion, almost always pro-defence. I don't think Roux did anything convincingly.

What does the judge make of all this? She has to show impartiality of course during the course of the trial and can't display emotion. But which way is she leaning?

Judge Masipa - late for lunch?

'Judge Masipa has shown she is determined to complete the closing arguments by the end of today, telling Gerrie Nel to hasten his case yesterday, calling for a limited lunch break and ordering the court to stay later into the afternoon than at any other point during the trial.' 

Judge Masipa: ‘Unless, of course, you want to work on a Saturday and perhaps Sunday after church’.

Personally, I don’t care. It’ll take as long as it takes. Hmm. Her main worry now seems to be getting things done quickly rather than asking questions or making sure of facts. I don't think this case should be rushed. I don’t understand why they had to put a time limit on it at all. Her life has been lost and his future is at stake. It’s important. I wish that this wasn’t her primary concern, that she had shown as much interest in the arguments and the evidence.

Barry Roux says if Judge Masipa believes Oscar Pistorius meant to kill Reeva Steenkamp then she 'can take a red pen' and draw a line through his entire argument. Someone make sure she has a red pen.

Let’s not lose sight of this. One fact is not in dispute. Oscar Pistorius shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp. The only thing at issue is whether he knew it was her he was shooting at. Whatever, he deliberately shot and killed someone, someone so dangerous that they had locked themselves in the toilet.

We don't know whether the shots were fired rapidly or not. Either way, Oscar is in trouble. If he shot quickfire, he meant to kill whoever was behind the door. If there was a break between shots, he would have heard Reeva’s screaming and therefore known it was her before he went on to fire more shots. Each scenario indicates an intent to kill.

The commentators are saying that the judge only has to believe that one factor in the police investigation was flawed for this to cast a reasonable doubt over Oscar’s guilt but as I stated in another blog, this is not relevant to whether or not he shot and killed Reeva (we know he did this even if he is reluctant to admit culpability; he is not attempting to deny this) and has no bearing on his intent.

The judge is due to deliver her verdict on 11 September 2014. It has to be one of these three. Let's hope that she gets to the right one.

'Only God will judge me' (Reeva Steenkamp)