Oscar Pistorius has sold the house in which he fatally shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last year.
One of Pistorius’ laywers said in March that the runner was selling the house to pay for legal costs associated with the trial. The trial began March 3, was first slated to run until March 20, but will now run into at least July. It is currently on break as Pistorius undergoes a mental evalution and will resume June 30.
“Due to the delay in finalizing the trial, the decision to urgently dispose of his single biggest asset, has had to be made,” lawyer Brian Webber said in a March 20 statement.
Pistorius had access to the house, valued at over $450,000 at last year’s bail hearing, for over a year since the shooting but had not returned as of March 20, leaving it sealed. Terms of the sale were not disclosed by Webber on Friday, but the lawyer said all of Pistorius’ personal items have been removed.
“Mr. Pistorius cannot contemplate ever returning to live there again,” the March 20 statement read.
Pistorius, the first double amputee to run in the Olympics in 2012, said he thought an intruder was locked inside his bathroom when he shot four times through a locked door, hitting and killing Steenkamp inside last year. He has not claimed he was mentally incapacitated at the time.
He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder. If not found guilty of premeditated murder, Pistorius could be convicted of culpable homicide, South Africa’s version of manslaughter for negligent killing.
