Trial Discussion Thread #13 - 14.03.25, Day 15

[Carol70]

On twitter there was the spelling "rabid"?

So strange, I wonder what she meant.

rab·id


/ˈrabəd,ˈrā-/

adjective
adjective: rabid
1.
having or proceeding from an extreme or fanatical support of or belief in something.

When I saw the word, I associated it with rapid dogs and was wondering wtf that could have to do with his house!

 

[Carol70]

No, actually, I can't appreciate that even possibly a grown man who has shared his room with a woman could even possibly get out of bed, leave the bedroom, return to the bedroom, hear a noise in the bathroom then grab his gun and start firing through the toilet door without confirming he wasn't about to kill his house mate.

snipped....

That's ok, we are all allowed our own opinions and I respect that!

 

[steveml]

I had not interpreted that sentence to necessarily mean at Silver Woods. Just before in his life. I don't know how long he had been at Silverwoods but I thought it wasn't that many years.

I always thought it odd that OP and his lawyers would add that sentence if there was NO evidence or examples in his life of that. I am guessing he had scares earlier in his life.

The only information I can find suggests that the Silver Woods house was purchased some time during 2008.

Previously he had purchased a unit in Ss Sleeping Willow Complex in 2006, and a second one in 2008 which he only kept for a few months.

 

[wishIknewmore]

Could 3rd and 4th shots been double tap?

That's an interesting thought but not so sure it would sound the same as 1 shot. Double tap shooting is something that requires training and practice. It's not a skill everyone that shoots has. Will be interesting to see if this comes up in the defense strategy. If so, we should hear from trainers, friends or at least someone from the gun range of his ability to so.

 

[Interested Bystander]

The only information I can find suggests that the Silver Woods house was purchased some time during 2008.

Previously he had purchased a unit in Ss Sleeping Willow Complex in 2006, and a second one in 2008 which he only kept for a few months.

Somewhere along the line I think I saw/heard 2011. Was he asked how long he had lived at that address during the time when he had to answer the charges in court? Maybe he owned it from 2008. Yet another search :tantrum:

He has been trying to sell his house since 2011 - so the 2008 date of ownership must be as you say.

 

[Carol70]

The only information I can find suggests that the Silver Woods house was purchased some time during 2008.

Previously he had purchased a unit in Ss Sleeping Willow Complex in 2006, and a second one in 2008 which he only kept for a few months.

imo, it doesn't really matter to me how many times and when he was burgled etc, it only takes for it to happen once and the fear becomes ingrained. Our home invasion was a few years ago, we have since moved house and into a better part of the area but we are still fanatical about home security and our safety, even though our invasion was non violent!

I also thought he moved around alot and had homes in various places too?

 

[Insp.Dots]

That's an interesting thought but not so sure it would sound the same as 1 shot. Double tap shooting is something that requires training and practice. It's not a skill everyone that shoots has. Will be interesting to see if this comes up in the defense strategy. If so, we should hear from trainers, friends or at least someone from the gun range of his ability to so.

It wouldn't have to sound like a single shot. Roux bought up that OP could have done 2 double taps.....that got me thinking... maybe due to Mangela's evidence of the stance RS was probably in and the fact one of those was the headshot a double tap could be possible for those two..
Problem is, I'm not clever enough to get further than that so my amazing theory ends there!!! :scared:

 

[Carol70]

Could 3rd and 4th shots been double tap?

Agg please could someone explain, in laymans terms, what this means..what is a double tap?? TIA

 

[james83]

Could 3rd and 4th shots been double tap?

Mangena said 2nd and 3rd or 3rd and 4th could have been double tap.

 

[DebinGA]

CNN: "he [Nel's] next witness is police warrant officer Adriaan Maritz, based at Boschkop [East Pretoria] police station in the crime information office. He is giving evidence via an interpreter. Nel asks Maritz if Pistorius had ever reported a crime or been the victim of a crime: "Did you establish that he was?"Maritz says he couldn't find anything of that sort on the system"

Nel had asked Office Maritz to check for any records of OP as complainant or victim and found none. Roux asked AM if that included only events that were reported to police, and he said that's correct. Does Roux want people to believe OP was victimized a number of times, some involving violence, but that he didn't report the incidents to police? If OP was a victim while living outside the Boschkop area wouldn't Roux have asked AM something like, "You only checked the records in your station though, and may be unaware of violence OP faced elsewhere, right?" But Roux didn't do that. Hmm ...

 

[steveml]

imo, it doesn't really matter to me how many times and when he was burgled etc, it only takes for it to happen once and the fear becomes ingrained. Our home invasion was a few years ago, we have since moved house and into a better part of the area but we are still fanatical about home security and our safety, even though our invasion was non violent!

I also thought he moved around alot and had homes in various places too?

Yep, I think it would be a very difficult thing to argue in court.

The most important thing is OP's state of mind before and during the shooting.

 

[steveml]

Agg please could someone explain, in laymans terms, what this means..what is a double tap?? TIA

A double tap is a shooting technique where two well-aimed shots are fired at the same target with very little time in between shots.

 

[Mango33]

So strange, I wonder what she meant.



When I saw the word, I associated it with rapid dogs and was wondering wtf that could have to do with his house!

When live tweeting, yes, some of the reporters wrote "rabid" not "rabbit". They sound similar and neither makes immediate sense!

The text I have is from CNN:

RS to OP: It’s like I see rabbit things in your house and when we go places you take pics of them everywhere. For me I’m thinking who do you have that connection with? And the same things will play on your mind. At the end of the day this is now not then

So I surmise he has a private joke with someone about rabbits or someone likes to give them to him and he takes pics and send the pics to someone as a joke or sentimentally. Something like that. RS feels out of the loop, left out of the joke and starts to wonder if the rabbits are leftover from an ex. But she decides she will just concentrate on now and not the past.

IMO.
Roux claimed he will explain the rabbits in the future.
They will be back.

 

[steveml]

I'll just elaborate on the double-tap technique a little bit more for clarity.

A double tap is a shooting technique where two well-aimed shots are fired at the same target with very little time in between shots.

If you very very quickly pulled the trigger twice on a gun, the likelihood is that the second shot would rise quite high above the target. This is because the gun naturally rises after a bullet is released.

To enable accuracy you have to aim back at the target after the first shot and squeeze the trigger again. It's an individual skill which varies from person to person, therefore a time guesstimate is quite difficult.

 

[BlueShoe]

O.K. Now I will be watching the OP testimony with baited breath and Nel had better ask him this question: "What are all these rabbit things you have around your house?":floorlaugh:

On a more serious note, would shooting a "double tap" mean the two bullet holes in the door would be near each other, or can the gun be moved while doing the double tap?

I think my question was answered above, but is there a way to see from the holes in the door the likelihood of a double tap?

 

[Cherwell]

imo, it doesn't really matter to me how many times and when he was burgled etc, it only takes for it to happen once and the fear becomes ingrained. Our home invasion was a few years ago, we have since moved house and into a better part of the area but we are still fanatical about home security and our safety, even though our invasion was non violent!

I also thought he moved around alot and had homes in various places too?

I agree that it only needs to happen once to make it a permanent worry. But the point is that he doesn't appear to have reported anything. I've been burgled once and there have been subsequent (failed) attempts (one while I was in the house). I reported every incident though - did you not report yours?

And having been burgled, there is no way I would be sleeping with any exterior doors open!

 

[TorisMom003]

I've read posts concerning Reeva and things about her decision to dress certain ways or to model for FHM and how she should want to be known for things more than that (words to that effect). I really don't understand this line of thinking/posting. Reeva was much more than just a model for FHM and should not be defined by what she decided to wear. From an article that I found about Reeva:

"A law school graduate, with a vibrant personality and a slew of modeling gigs under her belt.

Her growing exposure brought more opportunities. She served as a presenter for FashionTV in South Africa, was an FHM cover girl and was the face of cosmetics company Avon."

Also this:

"Before she died, Steenkamp sent out a message urging her thousands of social media followers to empower women.

"Speak out against the rape of individuals" in South Africa, she said in a post on the photo-sharing site Instagram. "RIP Anene Booysen."

Booysen, 17, was raped and mutilated in South Africa in February of last year, putting a spotlight on violence against women in the nation.

Steenkamp urged her followers on Twitter to wear black the day after Valentine's to protest violence against women."

Personally I would never judge someone based on what they wear or what they choose as their profession. It sounds as if Reeva was a truly wonderful, kind, caring human being and it is the world's loss that she was killed.

link to article:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/14/world/africa/south-africa-model-profile/index.html

MOO

 

[G.bng]

The other day we were discussing decibel levels and such and found that the db of a gun fired is at a level that can cause great pain and damage no matter how long the exposure. It's possible that fired in an enclosed space that reverberates sound, the gunshots left OP temporarily deafened or affected his hearing and he couldn't hear her scream if she did.

ETA: here's the chart I found:

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

Agreed, it could be he couldn't hear after the first shot, but then wouldn't that make him even more reckless to pump a full 4 bullets into such a tiny space without any warning and without even stopping to listen whether the intruder/burglar had been hit, was calling stop, groaning etc. Surely if that were the case then OP's claim he just wanted to scare the intruder/s/burglar/s (he needs to claim this if he aims to get the charge reduced to culpable homicide) doesn't make sense because 1, at most 2 bullets through the door would have been more than sufficient to scare anyone trapped in such a tiny space and even one shot in the air and/or a verbal warning would have achieved the same. And I recall OP in his statement says he thought there could be two intruders/burglars, so how the heck could anyone not foresee at least one of the these getting mortally hit from one of the 4 soft nosed bullets considering that two in such a tiny toilet would have had even less space to take cover and therefore it would be even more foreseeable that at least one would be killed. jmo.

 

[Insp.Dots]

Mangena said 2nd and 3rd or 3rd and 4th could have been double tap.

Thanks, I must have missed him saying that!
I think there expert is going to have to be pretty good to try and dent his evidence.

 

[BlueShoe]

Just had a strange thought. What if by "rabbit things" she meant guns?

(Guns are often used to shoot rabbits).