Second witness heard arguing – Oscar trial
A woman who lives near Oscar Pistorius's home heard arguing the morning he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Tuesday.
Double amputee Paralympian Oscar Pistorius is seen with his legal team during a break in court proceedings on the second day of his murder trial at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, 4 March 2014. Pistorius is accused of the murder of Reeva Steenkamp on Feb 14 2013. Picture: Antoine de Ras – Pool
“The fact is you never heard any arguing?” Barry Roux, SC, for Pistorius, asked Estelle van der Merwe.
“I did,” she replied.
She earlier said she heard a woman’s voice, but could not make out the words or the language, nor the direction it was coming from.
Roux questioned her about this and whether she had in fact heard arguing.
“I must say I know a woman’s voice and the movements in a woman’s voice,” she replied, speaking in Afrikaans. Her testimony was translated into English.
Van der Merwe’s bedroom balcony has a line of sight to the front of Pistorius’s townhouse, in the Silver Woods Country Estate.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel then started to question her.
The State will try to prove 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 firearm in public.
Pistorius contends he thought there was an intruder behind the door.
– Sapa
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