One Tragic Night (26 page)

Several months later, the Steenkamps gathered at a Port Elizabeth beach to carry out that final task. The moment was captured for posterity by a camera crew filming a documentary for the UK's Channel 5, entitled
Why Did Oscar Pistorius Kill Our Daughter?

A clergyman, his cream cassock flapping in incessant gusts of Port Elizabeth wind, led the family and gathered friends in a brief ceremony. Reeva's mother June, her face drawn, clutched a bouquet of long-stemmed red, white and dusty pink roses, which were subsequently placed on an artists' easel below a black-and-white portfolio portrait of her dead daughter before being cast into the crashing waves. Reeva's father, the burly, bearded Barry, struggled to maintain his composure as he leaned on his son Adam, who had flown in from the UK to attend the ceremony. Reeva's half-sister Simone Cowburn had also made the trip. Around a dozen people were gathered on the beach, including Reeva's ex-boyfriend Warren Lahoud, her cousin Kim Martin and her uncle Mike.

The family had chosen to scatter her ashes in the Indian Ocean because they had done the same with her grandfather when he had died. According to her mother, Reeva also loved to swim, loved the beach and loved being with dolphins, as had been so visibly illustrated by footage of her from the
Tropika
reality show. June was sure that this would be an appropriate resting place for her daughter.

Adam, his pants rolled up to his knees, took several steps into the foaming waves, clutching a plain pine wooden box in one hand and supporting his father with the other. Barry hadn't bothered with pulling up his jeans, choosing instead to allow them to soak up the salt water. Together they reached into the pine box, drawing out fists full of ash and scattering Reeva's remains into the wind and the ocean. The pastor, holding his shoes in his hands, watched from the beach as each family member and friend took a moment to remember Reeva, savouring the salt of the sea and their tears.

A thousand kilometres away from the poignant, moving memorial ceremony in Port Elizabeth, the circus of Oscar Pistorius's bail application had begun to play out. The date was 19 February, five days after Reeva's death.

The Department of Justice had warned journalists over the weekend that only 26 reporters would be allowed into the courtroom. The queue to get in started outside the court building as, initially, journalists were not allowed to enter. Only Oscar's lawyers and family were allowed to filter through and enter the court.

What had started off as a relatively organised affair, with journalists lining up in an orderly queue, quickly degenerated into a mass of shouting, swearing and angry individuals fighting to get into the courtroom. By 9am the majority of reporters had managed to get in, with Oscar's father, uncle and siblings already seated in the gallery. Around ten black leather office chairs had been positioned in front of the dock facing the magistrate. These were for the camera crews and their reporters. Chairs lined the sides of the courtroom, but reporters were taking up just about every available space, including the floor, and it was treacherous navigating the room.

Camera operators and photographers were taking pictures of the Pistorius family, while the athlete's legal team stacked up dozens of files on the defence bench, ready to launch the bail application.

Advocate Barry Roux sat directly behind the lectern, from where he would argue his case, while his co-counsel, Advocate Kenny Oldwadge, was to his immediate right. The pair leaned in to each other to overcome the bustle and noise in the courtroom as they paged through documents. Seated further to the right of the defence bench was hired forensic expert Reggie Perumal and ballistics expert Wollie Wolmarans.

At about 9:35am a court orderly asked that everyone quieten down as he placed a bottle of water on the magistrate's desk. Minutes later the cry of the orderly, ‘Rise in court', signalled the magistrate's arrival. Court was in session.

The holding cell doors opened and Oscar walked into the dock. The first order of the day would be to establish whether the bail application would be heard as a Schedule 5 or a Schedule 6 offence.

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel introduced the case and its particulars before informing Nair that the state had drafted its charge sheet.

‘In summary of the allegations and our case is that the applicant shot and killed an unarmed, innocent woman during the early hours of 14 February 2013. The incident took place in the residence of the applicant and we're confident that it will not be in dispute that the applicant fired four shots, three of which hit the deceased and caused her death, she was unarmed and inside the toilet with the door closed, the applicant fired shots from outside the closed door of the bathroom. The state argues that the applicant is charged with an offence referred to in Schedule 6 which is murder when it was preplanned or premeditated.'

The courtroom was hushed as Nel revealed a picture of what the state believe played out in Oscar's home in the early hours of Valentine's Day: ‘We say there may have been an argument between the applicant and the deceased and the evidence might point in that way, we say the only reasonable inference is that the applicant armed himself, attached his prosthesis, walked … 7 metres to the bathroom and shot the deceased while she was in the toilet, he fired four times and aimed at the basin, that would be our argument.'

Nel insisted that even Oscar's own version – that he had believed he was shooting at an intruder – amounted to premeditated murder.

Central to Nel's argument was the contention that preplanning or premeditation did not require months of planning but rather that Oscar could have planned to shoot Reeva ‘moments' before he did so. ‘If I arm myself, ready myself and walk a distance with the intention to kill somebody, it is premeditated,' he explained.

Defence Advocate Roux countered, stating that the matter was not even a case of murder, let alone premeditated murder. He said the accused intended to take the court into his confidence and make a full disclosure of what had transpired on the morning in question. The tension and anxiety in the room was palpable.

Roux also challenged Nel to provide evidence that there was a problem in the relationship that could have led to the argument and pointed out that Oscar had offered a ‘spontaneous defence' in that he thought he was shooting at a burglar.

‘I will at the appropriate time, if necessary, put before you case after case
after case reported when husbands by accident shot their wives, or the father the child through doors, believing that's a burglar, an intruder, that someone is going to harm them.'

He pointed out that Oscar broke down the door after the shooting. ‘If you strip this and you scratch the veneer off, where's the premeditation? Where's the plan? Because you shoot through a door because you believe it's a burglar?

‘What is there in the state's armoury, in the state's factual basis to say no, no, that is not so … that is a premeditated or preplanned murder? Nothing. The bag's empty,' he insisted.

As Roux concluded, Nel quickly rose to his feet.

‘I must say that I'm now more convinced,' he exclaimed, arguing why this was indeed a case of premeditated murder. ‘He got up from a bed, put on his prosthesis, armed himself, walked 7 metres. It's not “I wake up, there's somebody standing in front of my bed, I think it's a robber, I shoot.” Of course that's not preplanned.

‘We have a woman in the early hours of the morning in the house with her boyfriend going to a toilet, locking herself in, locking herself in early morning using the toilet. We say there are other inferences why somebody would do that.

‘This deceased was in a 1.4-metre by 1.14-metre little room, she couldn't go anywhere, when those shots were fired it must have been horrific. You can go nowhere.

‘There were two people in the house and he should have been worried about his girlfriend first before he took any other steps.'

Nel was becoming increasingly animated with his hands, occasionally glancing back towards the gallery and the accused. Oscar maintained a constant stare, his focus squarely on Nel.

After a few questions to Nel, Nair allowed Oscar to leave the courtroom before he adjourned and left himself. It was just before 11am.

A bustle returned to the courtroom as reporters grabbed the opportunity to compare notes, record stories and make phone calls. The brave – and desperate – left the courtroom to take a toilet break. About an hour after the proceedings adjourned, a court official asked those in the room to quieten down.

The Chief Magistrate began delivering his ruling on what schedule this case would be dealt as. Oscar broke down again, his head slumped forward as his brother Carl leaned forward from the bench behind him and placed his hand on his younger sibling's back. As he neared the conclusion, Nair made the significant ruling that, based on the evidence presented by the state, ‘I cannot at this point in time completely exclude, if not premeditation, planning.'

Nair concluded that for the purposes of the bail hearing, the matter would be dealt with as a Schedule 6 offence. It was a punch to the gut for Oscar. Court adjourned.

At about 1:30pm proceedings resumed with the real business of the day: the formal bail application. Would Oscar present a version to the court? In his delicate emotional state, would he be able to take the witness stand or would he depose to an affidavit? Each of these options carried immense risk for his legal team.

His advocate stood and announced that his client would address the court by means of a statement. Oscar would present his version of events, his account of what had transpired at his house in the early hours of Valentine's Day, in a sworn affidavit. Whatever version he presented to this court, he would have to stand by it through any trial that might follow.

Roux began to read:

The statement delved into the athlete's ‘personal circumstances' to support why he should be granted bail:

Nair interrupted Roux as Oscar's sobbing escalated. ‘Mr Oldwadge, can you check on your client please?'

Oscar was inconsolable. By this point, Carl was standing behind the dock, leaning forward and hugging his brother from behind. The accused was covering his face, but a few glances up showed that it was contorted, red, and tears were streaming down his cheeks.

Roux offered a rather cold response to the magistrate. ‘That is a difficulty that we have to deal with. The fact is that we have a similar situation all the time, and it will be there right through the …'

Nair interrupted; he was having none of it. ‘You know, my compassion as a human being doesn't allow me to just sit here, you know?'

‘I was unaware of that because my back was turned to him, but it is a difficulty we have encountered,' said Roux, now glancing over his shoulder towards his client.

Nair said he would adjourn the proceedings for two minutes to allow Oscar time to speak to his family and regain his composure. ‘Mr Pistorius, you need to concentrate on the proceedings.'