Quote: (03-10-2014 12:20 PM)bojangles Wrote:
Quote: (03-10-2014 11:45 AM)Bad Hussar Wrote:
Here's a brief update after week 1 of the trial for those interested:
No forensic evidence in week 1, I don't think. Mostly just "ear" witnesses to the crimes the state is trying to prove. Apart from the murder charge OP also faces other charges relating to the unsafe handling of guns on past occasions. The state witnesses are pretty damming so far. Multiple witnesses recall hearing an argument the night of the killing, a woman's chilling screams, then gunshots.
The defense's case seems weak to me, though put across as well as possible considering OP's legal team. His main lawyer charges something like US$5,000/day, a very large sum in SA. His defense is simply ignoring the argument heard by multiple witnesses (OP has already claimed there was no argument in written statements), and saying that the woman's screams that witnesses heard were actually OP screaming after realising what he had done. No, not making this up. The key to OP's defense will be that when he is anxious he screams like a girl. This has already been disputed by at least two witnesses, but that is the best the defense has. Will have to be spectacularly good to make that stick in my opinion. The defense is also trying to convince witnesses that some of the shots they heard weren't gunshots, but OP bashing down the door with a crickets bat.
OP's demeanor in court has been interesting. From the bit I saw he usually looks stoney-faced, and sometimes makes notes to pass to his legal team. When Steenkamp's injuries are described he brakes out in tears and sometimes vomits. I'm not buying it. Looks to he he is playing to a non-existent jury. Judges don't care about that sort of thing except to the extent it disrupts the flow of the case.
It's a weird case, the prosecutions evidence isn't really that strong either..
The state's case is circumstantial, since the defendant was the only eye witness. But like I said OP's defense relies on the judge believing at least 3 improbable things:
1) That the argument that multiple witnesses heard comning from OP's house that night never happened.
2) That OP screams like a girl when upset. Already disputed by two witnesses, one of whom heard a man's and woman's voice at the same time. So one moment OP screams like a girl, the very next like a man? Good luck getting a judge to believe that.
3)That the gunshots witnesses heard after the woman's screams (which the defense is claiming were actual OP screaming like a girl) was in fact the sound of a cricket bat on the bathroom door. the problem with this is that the witnesses claim a rapid succession of shots. Not enough time to draw the cricket bat back to get enough energy for the next blow.
So far nothing in the trial has caused me to change my prediction that in a few months time (depending on appeals) OP will be starting a 25 year prison sentence and he and his extended family's finances will be depleted by his (admittedly very good) defense team. I think the defense has too much reality to get over to obtain a not guilty for OP.