|
 Carice Viljoen and her father Johan, the manager of Pistorius'
up-market Pretoria housing complex, were first on the scene after
the 27-year-old shot dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in the
early hours of Feb. 14, 2013.
She said she feared Pistorius might use the gun he had left upstairs
to kill himself after emergency services staff asked him to fetch
the already dead Steenkamp's identification.
"I was scared that he might shoot himself," she told the court as
the trial resumed after a two-week adjournment. "I couldn't hear
him. I called out to him to hurry up with the bag."
Pistorius' defense hinges on his assertion that he heard a noise in
the middle of the night and thought it was an intruder climbing into
the bathroom adjoining his bedroom.
When he heard another noise coming from the toilet he fired four
shots through the door, thinking an intruder was behind it.
Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model, was hit by at least
three of the four hollow-point rounds fired and died almost
instantly.
The state argues that Pistorius killed her deliberately in a fit of
rage after the couple had a row.
Viljoen was the second defense witness called on Monday, taking the
stand after her father.
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The testimony from both painted a picture of Pistorius as a broken
man in the immediate aftermath of the killing. Johan Stander said
Pistorius was "torn apart, broken, desperate, pleading" as he prayed
for Steenkamp to stay alive.
Earlier, he described the telephone call he received in the middle
of the night from a distressed Pistorius telling him he had killed
Steenkamp by mistake.
"Oom (Uncle) Johan, please, please come to my house. I shot Reeva. I
thought she was an intruder. Please, please come quickly," he quoted
Pistorius as telling him.
If convicted of murder, Pistorius faces life in prison. The trial,
which was adjourned on April 17 to allow prosecutors to deal with
other cases on their books, has drawn huge interest both in South
Africa and abroad. Before the shooting, Pistorius, who had his lower
legs amputated as a baby, was one of the most recognized names in
athletics, competing against able-bodied sprinters on carbon-fiber
prosthetics. Besides a clutch of Paralympic medals, he reached the
semi-finals of the 400m at the London 2012 Olympics.
(Reporting by Nomatter Ndebele; Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng and
Ed Cropley)
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