Oscar Pistorius on murder charge

[Vash01]

In the article I read, the prosecutor mentioned the possibility of a lesser (than premeditated murder) charge sometime later. It means the prosecutor does not even fully believe this was premeditated.

[orbitz]

Maybe that "oh I am so scared" thing is what happened but then he is stupid with guns. Anyone I know with a gun and sense has a pre-developed plan about how to use a gun in the house with safe words and escape routes so you know where all the inhabitants are before you start shooting.

There have been two recent cases in the news that I can recall where the father killed the son because he thought the son was a burglar. Accidents do happen.

[CanuckSk8r]

Purely speculation of course - I am assuming the noises coming from the washroom were not typical sounds of usage, I am assuming there were thuds or other loud noises. Perhaps she fell/tripped hit her head (creating the head wound and potential explaination for the shot through her hand from her holding it), those sounds sounded like an intruder to him and things went from there.

As for it being unlikely that he not think of Reeva first when waking - sure if they lived there that would be more likely. I live by myself, when my house makes strange noises in the night, I grab my glasses and go into panicked ninja mode. When I have had house guests and my house makes strange noises, I grab my glasses and go into panicked ninja mode - even sleeping in a different room it takes me some time to remember that there is someone else in the house.

As a disclaimer, I am not on either the guilty or not-guilty side of this tragedy. I try to look at all possible scenarios.

[duane]

What a ridiculous story! If not for a dead woman, it would be comical.

I don't buy the story, nor his claim of being so fearful of an intruder. I think he is simply using the country's high crime statistics to his advantage..

[Skittl1321]

when my house makes strange noises in the night, I grab my glasses and go into panicked ninja mode.

This is why people shouldn't keep guns at their bedside. Even people who think they wake up 100% alert, rarely do.

[heckles]

I think he is simply using the country's high crime statistics to his advantage..

Ironically, he added to those crime statistics.

[Gazpacho]

If it's true that Reeva's skull was crushed--something that has only been reported in the media and not court documents--then Oscar is as innocent as OJ. You can't crush someone's skull by bashing a bathroom door with a cricket bat.

Even if Reeva's skull wasn't crushed, I still think he's guilty based on the affidavit. I can't say if he's guilty of premeditated murder because I don't know how the term is defined in that jurisdiction. But no way was this an accidental mistaken intruder killing. Too many pieces don't make sense, as pointed out by others in this thread.

[4rkidz]

hmm.. parts of this just don't make sense.. I struggle to understand why he wouldn't realize she wasn't in the bed - unless he was drugged up and really panicked.. I do understand the level of vulnerability of him without his legs and living in the situation where he is.. however, by choosing to have a loaded weapon and choosing to use it makes him guilty.. so then the issue just becomes .. was it premeditated? I can't see how this is truly accidental when he chooses to have a loaded gun and is totally irresponsible in its usage.. My concern though with the legalities - is it in SA whereby if you are not guilty of premeditated then you are off scott free??? Someone told me that at work today.. that all his defense has to do is prove it was NOT pre meditated..??

[IceAlisa]

If it's true that Reeva's skull was crushed--something that has only been reported in the media and not court documents--then Oscar is as innocent as OJ. You can't crush someone's skull by bashing a bathroom door with a cricket bat.

Having seen the diagram of the bathroom and that Reeva was sitting on the toilet, far away from the door, the skull bashing makes even less sense.

[heckles]

I struggle to understand why he wouldn't realize she wasn't in the bed - unless he was drugged up and really panicked..

If he'd claimed that he was on sleeping medication, that might have been believable. Doesn't seem that he's gone that route.

[snoopy]

Someone suggested he had roid rage (steroids, not hemeroids).

He shot through a closed door 4 times and hit her 3 times? And one was a deadly shot? Maybe he's in the wrong sport.

[heckles]

He shot through a closed door 4 times and hit her 3 times? And one was a deadly shot? Maybe he's in the wrong sport.

Eh, not really that impressive when you consider that he was at close range with a captive victim. He may have fired through the door a few times and/or beat the door with the cricket bat, and then looked through the holes in the door to position the fatal shot.

[Prancer]

Sometime before dawn, Pistorius said he awoke, and walking only on his stumps, pulled a fan in from an open balcony and closed it.

So he wasn't awakened abruptly by a noise in the bathroom; he may still have been groggy, but he was capable of at least some coherent, conscience thought.

“I am acutely aware of violent crime being committed by intruders entering homes,” he said. “I have received death threats before. I have also been a victim of violence and of burglaries before. For that reason I kept my firearm, a 9 mm Parabellum, underneath my bed when I went to bed at night.”

So he went to the bed to get his gun and didn't check to see if she was there? Chivalry is truly dead.

[Anita18]

This will likely be a key point - how mobile is he without his legs? He might be surprisingly mobile, keeping in mind that he's also very athletic.

If he's quite mobile without the prosthetics, I don't think he would have mentioned feeling so afraid. Even if he's able to stand on his stumps, the other person would probably be a lot taller than him, and have a lot of leverage.

I suspect analyzing the angles of the bullet holes in the bathroom door will tell prosecutors something - if he was at a lower angle. In addition, if they can discern if he was shooting low as though at someone who is sitting down or crouching, or if he was shooting high as though at someone hiding behind the door.

And from that, I wonder how much of the evidence was destroyed when he smashed in the door with the cricket bat, and if that was deliberate.

My thoughts exactly. The ballistics, if the evidence is intact, should be clear at what height he was shooting from. Even if they have to put the door back together, they can still figure it out if there are bulletholes in the bathroom anywhere.

[LilJen]

Someone suggested he had roid rage (steroids, not hemeroids).

Well, I suppose hemorrhoids *could* make some people really nuts.

Thank you for a great laugh!!

[Coco]

For those who work in forensics, how long does it take to analyze a scene and come to the conclusion of pre-meditated murder? It seems like he was charged immediately whereas TV shows tell us they need at least a day or two to analyze blood spatter, bullet trajectory, and comb the scenes for DNA.

That is what made me suspicious of the police in this case. Lots of men with his personality type and history would be easy to frame for something like this.

I remember hearing from "experts" when Nicole Brown Simpson died about how her fatal wound was consistent with a domestic violence killing.

This killing seems like overkill. While it's possible that it might be domestic violence, four shots after a bludgeoning seems a bit unusual for this type of killing. Usually it's one weapon or another, but not two.

[Prancer]

No one needed to frame him. He shot her. The only question is whether he did it knowingly or not.

Forensic evidence can take months, even years to process. Most police officers can do the basics (blood spatter, angle of shot, etc) on their own on the spot. If the cops waited for all the forensic evidence to be processed in most cases, very few people would be arrested.

As for the forensic science labs, they're overwhelmed with evidence that police and attorneys want examined.

The National Institute of Justice estimates a backlog of 200,000 to 300,000 DNA samples awaiting analysis in crime labs around the country.

People also have developed an unrealistic sense of how long it takes to investigate a case, said Patricia McFeeley, a forensic pathologist with the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.

On the TV dramas, toxicology results are available almost instantaneously. That's why in real life, family members of a victim often cannot understand why it takes months to obtain a death certificate, McFeeley said.

Forensics: Fact Vs. fiction. TV shows make crime solving look easy but in real life it's not so simple

And that's when forensic analysis is available. Most police do not have access to anything even close to what they have on TV.

[manhn]

I saw photos of his washroom. I have never seen a square toilet before. I don't know how comfortable that would be. And I always hit the toilet when I get out of the shower, so I can imagine some really bad bruises if my toilet were quad-shaped.

[heckles]

The ballistics, if the evidence is intact, should be clear at what height he was shooting from. Even if they have to put the door back together, they can still figure it out if there are bulletholes in the bathroom anywhere.

Okay, I'll be the one to mention it, as everyone else is pussy-footing around it. If Reeva was sitting on the toilet relieving herself, and Oscar shot her while she was still sitting on there, there should have been some crucial evidence left behind.

[Gazpacho]

Okay, I'll be the one to mention it, as everyone else is pussy-footing around it. If Reeva was sitting on the toilet relieving herself, and Oscar shot her while she was still sitting on there, there should have been some crucial evidence left behind.

Unless she was straining and couldn't get it out. I don't think Reeva being or not being on the toilet itself is material to the case. There isn't much question that she was in the toilet room for whatever reason.