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State closes its case in Oscar sentencing

The State closed its case in the sentencing procedures of paralympian Oscar Pistorius in the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.


“The case for the State in terms of sentencing is closed,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.

“I suggest that we adjourn until tomorrow morning and then we argue.”

On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for the Valentine’s Day 2013, shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse. The court found him not guilty of murdering Steenkamp.

The State called two witnesses in the sentencing procedures – Steenkamp’s cousin Kim Martin and the acting national commissioner of correctional services Zach Modise.

The defence called four – Pistorius’s psychologist Lore Hartzenberg, his manager Petrus van Zyl, correctional services department social worker Mashaba Joel Maringa and probation officer and social worker Annette Vergeer.

Arguments would be heard at 9.30am on Friday.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp through the locked door of the toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him. She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.

Pistorius was also found guilty of firing a pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013. He was found not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012, and of illegal possession of ammunition.

Sapa

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