Hello everyone
I've been reading this thread since the beginning, pretty much - thank you all for your interesting and insightful comments.
However, I have specifically signed up to weigh in on the heart beating issue.
Viper, you are not correct.
Saayman only ever said that Reeva took a few breaths after the head shot - Botha said the same. He also said she would have died fairly soon after that.
Not breathing does not necessarily equal dead. I think that you have assumed it means the same thing when it does not.
Her skull fractured after the last shot meaning that the brain stem was destroyed. This is the area of the brain responsible for breathing, so she stopped.
Hearts are autonomous organs with their own electrical system. They can continue to beat for up to 6 minutes after breathing stops (depending on many factors, of course). It is highly likely that Reeva's managed to keep beating for a few minutes at least - this would not be unusual.
Blood spatter analysis is more than some man looking at spots of blood and deciding they are arterial. There is a a specific type of pattern than can only be formed by blood being pulsed out because of ventricular movement. If Van Der Nest said the spots were arterial, then they were. No amount of jiggling a body about will form the exact same pattern as arterial spurts.
What you seem to be suggesting is that two very important state witnesses are in direct contradiction - Van der Nest says her heart was beating as she was brought down the stairs while Saayman says this stopped in the toilet?! This isn't very likely.
Also, a thread or two back, someone was confusing Reeva's clenched teeth with rigor mortis. Obviously, this wasn't rigor mortis (impossible), but there is a thing called caderivic spasm where muscles stiffen at the moment of death - usually when a death has been particularly violent and emotional.
This explains Reeva clenching her teeth as witnessed by Dr Stipp - further evidence that she died at the bottom of the stairs.
For what it's worth, Jake18 and Crasshopper clearly are medical professionals and know what they are talking about - and they are right.
Reeva's head injury stopped her breathing. OP brought her out of the toilet very soon after this, and her heart was managing to beat weakly as she was brought downstairs. This stopped and she went into spasm either halfway down or at the bottom of the stairs.
The cast off spatter that Roux mentioned would be in relation to the spatters on the headboard & wall - OP mentioned that himself on the stand. At no time did Roux query the arterial spurting evidence, which he would have done if there was dispute about this.
For me, this is the evidence that will convict OP. It is impossible for him to have shot Reeva at around 3am given that her heart was still beating 20 minutes later. It's totally possible for him to have been standing on the stairs with her 5 or so minutes later with her heart feebly managing a few dying beats, though.
To reiterate, the confusion has come about because of your assumption that Saayman saying she took a few breaths meant this was when she died. It would not mean that, and this does not necessarily follow - death is often a process not a single event.
