Pistorius neighbour says shooting accidental

May 06, 2014 03:18

Using witness accounts of a panicked nighttime phone call from Oscar Pistorius begging for help and his desperate pleas for Reeva Steenkamp to stay alive, the defense at his murder trial tried to reinforce its case today that the double-amputee Olympian fatally shot his girlfriend in a tragic error of judgment.

Johan Stander and his daughter Carice Viljoen, neighbours and friends of Pistorius, testified that they were at the runner's villa soon after the shooting on Feb. 14, 2013 and that Pistorius was praying, trying to help Steenkamp breathe and urging her to live.

Viljoen testified that Pistorius was saying to Steenkamp as she lay on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds: "Stay with me, my love, stay with me."

The world-famous disabled runner had shot four times through a toilet cubicle door with his 9 mm pistol minutes earlier, hitting Steenkamp in the hip, arm and head. He claims he thought she was a dangerous intruder in the cubicle in his darkened bathroom.

Prosecutors maintain Pistorius, 27, is lying about the perceived trespasser, and his story is designed to cover up that he killed the 29-year-old model intentionally in the midst of a heated argument. The first amputee to run at the Olympics in 2012, Pistorius faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of a premeditated murder charge.

The testimonies from the neighbours began the seventh week of proceedings in the globally televised trial, which resumed after a two-week recess

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