Oscar Pistorius trial part 4

[Pennies]

Here you go.

The rack was usually in the middle of the back wall. OP says this time it was on the rhs. This fits with him thinking it was the sound of the lock but now with hindsight it must have been the magazine rack moving.
But, the ballistics say Reeva fell back onto the magazine rack. In it's usual position. And defence couldn't get them to agree a possibility otherwise.

so the question would be, why does he maintain that he didn't turn the bathroom light on?

I am supposing that he might have realised it was Reeva after the first shot because she DID make a sound. He has maintained the 'it was so dark' thing and made up the whole looking for her by the curtains/bed etc because he already knew, at the point that he shot the first bullet, that it was Reeva and doesn't want to admit it because then that calls into question why he then shot three more times?

I'm just catching up.
Stack thanks for listing all the links

"I am supposing that he might have realised it was Reeva after the first shot because she DID make a sound."

I think she must have made a sound - when the first bullet smashed her hip.

I'm not so sure she would have necessarily have made a sound - it's possible that she was in such shock and agony that she was unable to get any sound out.

I'm sure that a cricket bat and gunshot do sound similar if the cricket bat is being hit at close range. But I imagine it's not as many decibels. You don't tend to see cricketers wearing ear defenders...!

The thwack of a cricket bat hitting a cricket ball will be a very different sound indeed from it hitting a door. The latter will have a booming sound and will act in some ways similar to a loudspeaker.

Totally agree withupnorthfelinefan.

nauticant but still surely nowhere near as loud as a gun firing a bullet?

She probably gasped when the first bullet hit her, but he wouldn't have been able to hear. A shot in a small room means his ears would have been ringing.

gasped?
Blimey I scream if I go to fall unexpectedly, or stub my toe or something.

It's possible she was too appalled / stunned to make a sound.

I mentioned up thread that I have fired a pistol in an indoor shooting range. There was carpet on the floor which helped to soften the sound, and the room was huge. I wore ear defenders and it was still very, very loud.

OP's bathroom was small and fully tiled so the acoustics would have been loud, hard and echoey. The noise of the gun going off would have been tremendous. His ears would most certainly have been ringing. If she made a sound he wouldn't have heard.

Forget appalled or stunned, she would have been in excruciating, unthinkable levels of pain.

Of course - and profoundly shocked beyond being able to make a sound.

I'm pretty sure the defence witnesses said it was highly likely that Reeva would have screamed.
I've just been reading BBC updates and wondering if anyone can clarify regarding the photos taken at the bathroom window? It looked in the photo where a man was on his knees that he was smaller than OP would have been on his stumps. Did they ensure that he would have been the same height? Otherwise, that exercise was a bit redundant. I could kneel at a window and not be visible but my taller friend would be

I don't think you would make a considered response to being shot - your body would respond. I imagine my response to the sudden infliction of extreme pain and noise would be loud and long.

Gasping, would be the very last response I would imagine I would have.

I'm jumping on new today too, having been lurking and watching the coverage, and I largely agree with upnorthfelinefan and also what Nerf said earlier about Nel not being all that. I have found him bullying and hectoring rather than smart and incisive, he hasn't convinced me of anything. I was really glad when the bit about kicking the loo door closed came up again in cross examination today because I was yelling at the screen the other day when he twisted all that around and OP ended up apologising for a 'mistake' when it was obvious Nel was just screwing around with words.

"She probably gasped when the first bullet hit her, but he wouldn't have been able to hear. A shot in a small room means his ears would have been ringing."

This is probably a stupid question but does sound travel faster than a bullet?

If anyone has got a new TV box, sky special reports are on there

Exactly BeCool. Screaming is a reflex response rather than a thought response.

upnorthfelinefan iwhat solid proof of an argument would you expect to see ?
I've had some might rows with XP but there has never if every been any evidence of them at the time. What sort of evidence is there of big rows you have had with a partner?

If Nel had made any errors, twisted things then you can be absolutely sure that Roux would have made an objection to the line of examination or that the judge would have stepped in, without doubt.

If the acoustics were loud in the toilet with a gun shot, then they would equally have been loud with screaming.

Do we have any account of when the lights were turned on?

I think that it would have taken a few seconds for her to realise what had happened to her, before she could make any significant sound. By which time he shot again.

Exactly Pennies - I think there is a chance the shock would have rendered her momentarily speechless.

Do you know what I find so hard, the silence, I find that so upsetting, whether one believes OPs version or not.

She has no voice now, and we are being led to believe that she said nothing, made no noise, so silent during the minutes before her killing. This has nothing to do with the trial at all, but I find that so hard.

Just a musing, sorry.