Trial Discussion Thread #1 - 14.03.03-06, Day 1-4

[zwiebel]

We don't have the same type of houses as Americans...ours are made of solid brick. We don't have that funny fluffy stuff I see that is between your walls and interior walls made of wood that I see when I watch extreme home makeovers haha ...if my kids etc are in their bedrooms and talking, we can't hear them..only if they are shouting and causing a ruckus can we hear them. Our ceilings and roofs are solid,with thick ceramic type tiles, every room is enclosed.
Houses dont have attics and basements unheard of, unless someone wants something like a wine cellar (very rare and only the rich) and that is something you would have to do yourself, houses don't come with them. Hth!

Thanks.
I'm in Germany and my interior walls appear to be made of timber, straw.....and horse dung. It's very old, but I still find it a little disconcerting. Can't hear a thing through them though.

Nothing against horses of course - just their poo I'm not keen on.

 

[HauntsForHope]

http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/fo0221_pistoriushowididit940b.jpg

 

[HauntsForHope]

Todays' testimony brought out that the argument lasted an hour starting at 1:56 am. It woke her up and she looked at the clock, annoyed because her son had an exam in the morning.

 

[Carol70]

Thanks for that refresh diagram HFH. So there was screaming before, during and after the shots, just have to establish who was screaming. Burger is adamant a woman and man voice, the other witness says she heard a woman screaming but her husband who was directly opposite the house on their balcony told her it was in fact OP screaming???

 

[Carol70]

Thanks.
I'm in Germany and my interior walls appear to be made of timber, straw.....and horse dung. It's very old, but I still find it a little disconcerting. Can't hear a thing through them though.

Nothing against horses of course - just their poo I'm not keen on.

Oh LOL!!! Sounds umm...quaint!

 

[HauntsForHope]

My understanding is that they heard a woman screaming, shots rang out and the screaming died off. Then a mans voice yelled, help three times. Everyone said the same thing. The only difference was that some of them heard 4 shots exactly. Her husband thought there may have been 4 5 or 6.

 

[gxm]

We don't have the same type of houses as Americans...ours are made of solid brick. We don't have that funny fluffy stuff I see that is between your walls and interior walls made of wood that I see when I watch extreme home makeovers haha ...if my kids etc are in their bedrooms and talking, we can't hear them..only if they are shouting and causing a ruckus can we hear them. Our ceilings and roofs are solid,with thick ceramic type tiles, every room is enclosed.
Houses dont have attics and basements unheard of, unless someone wants something like a wine cellar (very rare and only the rich) and that is something you would have to do yourself, houses don't come with them. Hth!

Sound is dampened by several layers of different density (like insulation between joists). Normal tile (not made for soundproofing) will actually bounce the sound and amplify it, as opposed to absorb it. And then there's the duct work. I can hear a conversation in our basement from the second level master bath due to the configuration of the duct work in our house. Walk outside of the bath and, poof, silence. If windows were open, someone could easily have heard Reeva scream.

 

[HauntsForHope]

Anyone know any details about several cell phones found in the bathroom?

 

[Rumpole]

Yes. The witness after Burger testified that she thought it was a woman screaming or crying very loudly after the shots ended, but her husband told her it was Oscar because he knows Oscar well and knows his screaming voice.

Thanks for your posts in general on this case.

You have expressed several points that I would note... but you do it far more succinctly than me

 

[Madeleine74]

Oscar's story just doesn't have credibility to me. Maybe I'm being extra harsh, but I don't believe him. I think there was some kind of fight or argument that night and whether or not he intended to kill her, he did. 4 shots into a small toilet area is not just a warning. I think he's guilty, not sure about premeditated murder yet, but we're only 2 witnesses in.

 

[Feynman]

Excerpted:

OP's bail affidavit includes this:
"...I noticed that the bathroom window was open. I realised that the intruder/s was/were in the toilet because the toilet door was closed and I did not see anyone in the bathroom. I heard movement inside the toilet. The toilet is inside the bathroom and has a separate door..."

The matter of light in the bathroom is also something people here also get wrong, so if I may help:

OP's bail Affidavit alleges that his bedroom was "pitch dark."
But not the bathroom.
Rather the opposite!
He alleges that because he can see the window open and also someone locked in the toilet, that s/he (they?) might be intruder(s) and that he must fire to protect himself and Reeva.

This implies that either he switched the light on, or it was already on in the bathroom. [He is not explicit here.]

Well, there is another possibility: There are no inside lights on, it was pitch black in the bedroom (blinds, curtains closed), but not in the bathroom (open bathroom window, ambient light from outside).

 

[Carol70]

Thanks for your posts in general on this case.

You have expressed several points that I would note... but you do it far more succinctly than me

I agree, and incredibly informative!!

 

[Feynman]

She said several times that she heard the woman screaming after the last shot.

More like the woman's voice fading away after the last shot I think.

 

[Huna]

It looked terribly fake to me the way he was crying and wiping his eyes with that big handkerchief today.

 

[Madeleine74]

Since it appears that a woman (who must be RS) was screaming prior to the shots, then one must ask why OP wasn't able to tell it was a woman and, specifically, Reeva, who was screaming. The screams would have been coming from the bathroom. Is OP unable to discern screams from a woman? And he shoots at the screaming female sounds anyway? That's just one example of why his story is bogus.

 

[zwiebel]

If Oscar did shoot Reeva deliberately, I find it very, very disturbing that he says she was still alive when he picked her up. I'm not sure where my thoughts are leading me, except I'm thinking if he wanted to kill her, it's unlikely he would then have tried to get her alive to emergency services.

Poor Reeva. Whatever happened, she must have been so, so scared in that claustrophobic little room. Bob Harrod's wife believes he died in his bathroom too - I'm so sad for both of them.

 

[gxm]

I think he shot in anger and then realized what he had done and went to break the door down.

 

[zwiebel]

At about 2.00 in this video here, he starts knocking in the cricket bat (hitting it with a wooden mallet). I can JUST about imagine how the sound of wood hitting wood from a distance, but much harder, might sound like a very, very faint gunshot.
http://youtu.be/NXmEyxqzVUc


At about 1.40 here they start hitting the ball and this is the only sound I've managed to find that I really could easily mistake for a gunshot. But they're in a big, echoey room and the bat's hitting a leather ball - or are cricket balls made of leather coated wood? I'm ashamed to say I don't know.
http://youtu.be/rciPdOo0VOg

 

[fruity]

I think he shot in anger and then realized what he had done and went to break the door down.

Me too.

 

[fruity]

At about 2.00 in this video here, he starts knocking in the cricket bat (hitting it with a wooden mallet). I can JUST about imagine how the sound of wood hitting wood from a distance, but much harder, might sound like a very, very faint gunshot.
http://youtu.be/NXmEyxqzVUc


At about 1.40 here they start hitting the ball and this is the only sound I've managed to find that I really could easily mistake for a gunshot. But they're in a big, echoey room and the bat's hitting a leather ball - or are cricket balls made of leather coated wood? I'm ashamed to say I don't know.
http://youtu.be/rciPdOo0VOg

Usually leather coated cork, with layers of string.