Oscar Pistorius reportedly wept and prayed before being handed a copy of his indictment on a charge of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at a Pretoria court Monday morning.
Pistorius’ trial will run from March 3-20, the court announced.
Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day morning in his Pretoria home. If convicted of premeditated murder, he faces a life sentence with at least 25 years in prison.
The defense said Pistorius thought Steenkamp was an intruder locked behind a bathroom door. The state will argue Steenkamp was hiding behind the bathroom door, fearing for her life, during the trial, City Press in South Africa reported Sunday.
The indictment (linked here) included 107 witnesses that the state could call on, including at least one of Pistorius’ ex-girlfriends, according to reports from the Pretoria courtroom. Some of the witnesses heard a woman scream, then gunshots, then more screaming, the indictment read, according to reports.
Steenkamp would have turned 30 years old Monday.
South African outlet News24 compiled a photo gallery of Pistorius’ appearance. He did not say much during the 12-minute proceedings after nearly an hour delay.
A report out of South Africa last week said Pistorius would face additional charges of recklessly discharging a gun in public in separate incidents, but those charges were not included in the indictment. The second charge in the indictment was the possession of illegal ammunition.
It was reported over the weekend that Pistorius told detectives how to access his iPhone but can’t remember a password to access his WhatsApp messages, according to the Star in South Africa.
“After months of SDHp pressing him he remembered the password to his iPhone 5 but we haven’t been in a position to open all his messages from the night of the shooting and the days before that,” a senior source at South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority said, according to the Star.
The media attention on Pistorius has remained high in South Africa. He was recently spotted on a kayak, and that photo made the front page of the country’s leading Afrikaans-language newspaper.
In 2012, Pistorius became the first double leg amputee to compete in the Olympics when he ran the 400 meters and the 4×400-meter relay.
The World Track and Field Championships went on without Pistorius in Moscow last week. Olympic champion Kirani James, who exchanged nametags with Pistorius at the London Games, told The Associated Press he plans to frame the nametag.
“For him not to be here, it’s something the sport is missing,” James said, according to the AP.
