Oscar Pistorius on trial - day 22

Why only four shots? Nel asks 

Nel asks why fired only four shots into his toilet door. "Why did you stop? Why only four? Why not empty the magazine?".

— The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked murder-accused Oscar Pistorius why he fired only four shots into his toilet door.

"Why did you stop? Why only four? Why not empty the magazine?" Nel said during cross-examination of the paralympic athlete.

"I'm not sure," Pistorius replied softly.

"Why not fire at the window?" Nel asked. P

istorius replied that he was pointing his gun at the door at the time.  He says moments before he heard his bathroom window, which is next to the toilet cubicle, slide open, took his gun and went to investigate.

Nel asked Pistorius why he did not fire a warning shot into the shower. "The bullet might have ricocheted and hit me."

Nel asked why he did not foresee a similar thing happening in the closed toilet cubicle.

Pistorius: "I didn't intend to fire, but I fired."

Nel: "Did you aim to shoot?"

Pistorius: "No, I didn't aim to shoot."

Nel: "So it was just luck that the gun was pointed at the door?"

Pistorius: "It wasn't luck. She lost her life."

Before adjourning for lunch, Judge Thokozile Masipa asked to see Nel and Pistorius's lawyer Barry Roux outside.

According to the State, the shooting happened during an argument.

Oscar left out evidence: state 

Nel: you never mentioned the door slamming. Not in your bail application nor plea explanation. — The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Murder-accused Oscar Pistorius left out important evidence in his bail application and plea explanation, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Monday.

Asked by prosecutor Gerrie Nel on Monday about the morning he shot Steenkamp, Pistorius said: "I heard the [toilet] door slamming."

Nel: "There's not a single word of that in your bail application or plea explanation. Why?" Pistorius: "I'm not sure, my lady."

Nel: "It's because you invented it." Pistorius testified that the door to the toilet, which was inside the bathroom, slammed after he had shouted out to Steenkamp to call the police.

At this time, he was armed, on his stumps, and approaching the bathroom. "It was after I screamed to Reeva," Pistorius said.

Nel also questioned Pistorius about whether he had "pointed" or "aimed" his gun, whether he was thinking or not before he shot, and why he fired through the closed door of his toilet.

He spent several minutes conducting a blow-by-blow examination of how Pistorius crept into his bathroom on his stumps and held his gun.

Just before Pistorius broke down, Nel confronted him with the fact that his defence had changed from "putative self-defence" to "I don't know why", when asked why he pulled the trigger of his 9mm pistol and fired through his closed toilet door four times, killing Steenkamp.

Pistorius: "I thought the person was coming out to attack me. I wasn't thinking."

Nel: "Did you fire at the perceived attacker?"

Pistorius: "I fired at the door. I heard the noise and I fired out of fear."

Nel told Pistorius he could not claim two defences, shooting out of fear and shooting by mistake.

Nel pressed on: "You shot at Reeva." Pistorius wailed: "It's not true."

Nel: "Why are you getting emotional now?" Court was adjourned for Pistorius to compose himself.

'Get the f**k out': Oscar 

: I shouted at them to get the F$%k out of my house. Pistorius bursts out in tears. Court takes short adjournment. — The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Oscar Pistorius swore and shouted at what he thought was an intruder in his home before he opened fire, killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Monday.

Pistorius said as he approached the bathroom door, he shouted: "Get out of my house... Get the f**k out of my house."

Speaking in a high pitched voice, he then broke down and cried.

Court adjourned and Pistorius continued to stand in the witness box in tears. His brother Carl and sister Aimee, rushed to his side, seeking to give him comfort.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said he intended to prove that Pistorius was tailoring his evidence to suit his version.

Court was to resume at 11.30am.

Reeva wanted to leave, court hears 

Nel: she wanted to get dressed and leave, is that not the reason why denim and slops are out? : it is not true. — The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Reeva Steenkamp wanted to leave her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius's house on the morning she was shot dead, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Monday.

Cross-examining Pistorius, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said that was the only reason why Steenkamp's jeans were outside her overnight bag on that morning.

"Isn't it that she wanted to get dressed and leave?" Nel asked the paralympic athlete. "Why would she pack everything else and leave the jeans out?"

He pointed out that Steenkamp was a very neat person as all her clothes and undergarments were neatly packed in the overnight bag she had carried to Pistorius's home that day.

The only other item of clothing outside the bag was Steenkamp's "slops".

Nel also questioned Pistorius on why her slops had been placed on the left-hand side of the bed while Reeva slept on the right.

"There was not much space on the right," Pistorius said, adding that, among other things, there was a couch on that side of the bed.

He kept his focus on Judge Thokozile Masipa as he answered.

Nel: Oscar's story 'concocted'

Nel states case that and were both awake and there was an argument. Then moves to her stomach contents. — The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel on Monday focused on how "improbable" and "concocted" Oscar Pistorius's version of the death of Reeva Steenkamp is, in his trial in the High Court in Pretoria.

"Your version is so improbable that it cannot be reasonably, possibly true," Nel began the day's cross-examination. Almost immediately the clicking of fingers on laptop keyboards rose from the journalists in the public gallery. He said his version of events was "in fact untrue".

"It is a concocted version which you've tailored to fit the State's case. Do you understand?"

"Yes, My Lady," he replied softly.

Oscar back in court for day 22

is expected to continue cross examining when his murder trial resumes in the High Court in Pretoria shortly. — The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Gerrie Nel is expected to continue cross examining Oscar Pistorius when his murder trial resumes in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday. It would mark the paralympian's sixth day facing Nel, with the prosecutor grinding away at his claim that he thought his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was an intruder hiding in his toilet.

Pistorius shot four times through the closed door, apparently thinking the intruder was about to emerge and attack him, shortly after 3am on February 14 last year. Steenkamp was struck in the him, arm, and head.

- SAPA