A text from Reeva Steenkamp‘s phone to Oscar Pistorius said, “I’m scared of you sometimes,” 18 days before Steenkamp was fatally shot by Pistorius last year, a cell phone analyst testified at Pistorius’ murder trial Monday.
Police Capt. Francois Moller said he and others read through 2,731 WhatsApp and iMessage messages on Steenkamp’s phone recovered from the scene of her death on Valentine’s Day 2013 and found 1,709 of the messages were between Steenkamp and Pistorius.
Moller estimated 90 percent of the messages were “normal conversations and loving conversations,” between Pistorius, the first double amputee to run in the Olympics in 2012, and Steenkamp, his model girlfriend.
The selected messages Moller read in a Pretoria court room Monday depicted problems in their relationship in the three weeks before Pistorius shot four times through a locked bathroom door in his home, hitting and killing Steenkamp inside.
“I’m scared of you sometimes, and how you snap at me and of how you will react to me,” Moller read as part of a text from Steenkamp’s phone of more than 500 words on Jan. 27, 2013. “You make me happy 90 percent of the time, and I think we are amazing together, but I am not some other bitch.”
The message said that Steenkamp was unhappy with Pistorius for leaving an engagement with a friend earlier than she wanted.
“I was not flirting with anyone today,” Moller read from the message. “I feel sick that you suggested that, and that you made a scene at the table and made us leave early. I’m terribly disappointed in how the day ended and how you left me. We are living in a double standard relationship where you can be mad about how I deal with stuff when you are very quick to act cold and offish when you’re unhappy.
“From the outside, I think it looks like we are a struggle, and maybe that’s what we are. I just want to love and be loved, be happy and make someone so happy. Maybe we can’t do that for each other cause right now I know you aren’t happy, and I’m certainly very unhappy and sad.”
Responses came from Pistorius’ phone later that day, apologizing and asking to call Steenkamp.
“I want to sort this out,” Moller read. “I don’t want to have anything less than amazing for you and I. I’m sorry for the things I say without thinking and for taking offense to some of your actions.”
The last message Moller read Monday came from Steenkamp’s phone to Pistorius’ phone on Feb. 8, 2013, six days before the fatal shooting.
“I regard myself as a lady, and I don’t feel like one tonight after the way you treated me when we left,” Moller read. “I’m a person, too, and I appreciate that you invited me out tonight, and I realize that you get harassed, but I am trying my best to make you happy, and I feel as though you sometimes never are, no matter the effort I put in. I can’t be attacked by outsiders for dating you and be attacked by you, the one person I deserve protection from.”
Pistorius could face up to 25 years if convicted of premeditated murder. He said he shot thinking there was an intruder locked in his bathroom on Valentine’s Day 2013. The prosecution said Pistorius shot after an argument with Steenkamp.
Here’s NBC News’ coverage of the Pistorius trial.
The trial is expected to resume on Tuesday at 3:30 a.m. ET.
