Pistorius Trial: Witness Timelines 8 (Rika Motshuane)

Rika Motshuane 

Her house is to the right of his house from them front (street) view.

So to the left of his house when looking straight at the famous bathroom window. 

She was woken by the sound of a man crying that sound like cries of pain.   

She woke up her husband. 

“Did you hear?”  “Yes I heard but I thought I was dreaming.” 

She told him the crying was real and panicking. 

She wondered if one of the security guards had been shot.   

There were dogs barking.  She felt panic.

The crying was very loud and very close. 

She even thought it might be inside their house. 

Asked to imitate the crying, she gave two enormous squealing howls. 

After that, she and her husband saw a Mini Cooper arrive (Carice Stander’s).

They then went back to bed.   

Then she heard another car arrive and looked out the window and it was the security bakkie.   

She again went back to bed.

She guesses that she heard the crying for the first time about 5-10 minutes, max 10 minutes before the arrival of the Mini.

She heard no bangs.

Pistorius Trial: Witness Timelines 7 (Michael and Eontle Nhlengethwa)

Michael and Eontle Nhlengethwa: house to the left of Pistorius facing front door

His bedroom is located at about 25 meters from Pistorius’ bedroom balcony, facing out on the same side as Oscar’s bathroom window, to the back of the house over a green.  

The windows and blinds were closed.  The blinds are wooden blinds that close horizontally.

Mr. Nhlengethwa and his wife went to bed at around 22:00-23:00.  

Mrs. Nhlengethwa was awakened by a very loud bang.  It was so loud she thought it might actually have been in the house.

She woke up her husband.  

He went to his daughter’s and son's rooms and checked the doors to see if they were still locked.

They always locks the kids’ doors when they go to bed.

They always leave some faint lights on in the upstairs hall at night.

He then went to check other room and doors around the house.   

He found nothing.

He went back to the bedroom and said “There’s nothing in the house, so it means it’s outside”.

He tried to peer through the crack in the blinds, but saw nothing special.

Then they heard a man crying very loud. 

Mrs. Nhlengethwa imitated this crying with an extremely loud howl.

She described it as high-pitched but definitely a male voice.

"This was not normal crying but crying from being in danger, needing help."  

"The cry that we heard was a person desperate for help.  Probably in danger." 

They "went into shock mode", knew something was very wrong. 

They thought it was something had happened to the security guard outside or to a neighbor.

At that moment they were not sure where the voice was coming from.

While peeking through the blinds, he did not turn the bedroom light on, because he did not like the idea that a criminal outside could notice it and think “there’s someone looking through the blinds at me”.

Mrs. Nhlengethwa stated were words in the crying, “please, no, please, no”. 

The crying continued on and on.

Mrs. Nhlengethwa also heard a man's voice shouting loudly "Help, help, help".

Mr. Nhlengethwa did not hear this.  (May have been checking out the house at that point.)

Mr. Nhlengethwa said to his wife “I should go out”.

She said “I don’t allow you to go out there’s no way”. 

So he said “if something’s happening to my neighbor I can’t just sit here and relax”.

So they agreed that he should phone security.

He called at 3:16:30 but it was engaged. 

He dialed again at 3:16:36 and made a call that lasted 44 seconds.

He said “I’m Michael, I’m at 287, there’s a man near here desperate for help, please come this way and quickly check the homes around me.”

He couldn't say whether there was crying during the phone call, but after the phone call there was still crying.   

He then checked through the windows and heard the sound of a car.   

He thought it must be security and checked through the blinds.

He saw the "bakkie" (van) from security parked across the green at the back of his house where the bedroom window looked out.

The security people were talking to another neighbor from the balcony (the Stipps).

He said to his wife, “There’s a problem in that house”. 

But after a minute the bakkie went out of the driveway and up the street to the left.

It was followed by the white car from that house (Stipp driving to Pistorius' house).

Mr. Nhlengethwa realized the problem was not at that house, but closer to his.

He went into a study that faces the street front of the house and kept watching.

He saw the cars park, and said “It’s in Oscar’s house or the one opposite him”.   

He decided that at this point it would be safe for him to go out.

He went up to the bedroom, told his wife that it was Oscar or the house opposite, and that he can’t just go back to sleep, now he has to go out.   

He got dressed and went over to Oscar’s house.

When he went out, he switched on the ground floor lights of his house. But there were already dim lights on upstairs.

He started walking to Oscar’s house. 

He saw the bakkie and the white car and heard the crying that was still going on, with a somewhat lower voice, but still crying.   

He saw Mr. Stander in the street there and talked to him. 

Asked “is Oscar okay”?   

Mr. Stander said “he’s okay but go check yourself”.   

He went to the front door and saw Oscar kneeling next to the lady who was lying on the floor, he was just crying. 

The gentleman (Stipp) was inside the house and Oscar was asking him to help, pleading with him.   

The situation was bad and Mr. Nhlengethwa could not even bear to step farther into the house or to see what he was seeing.   

He saw Oscar saying “please help, help me, help me”.   

The lady was still lying there.

Then paramedics arrived with a stretcher.   

Mr. Nhlengethwa helped them go in with the stretcher. 

He helped them open the second panel of the front door which was similar to his own.   

He stayed about 10 minutes longer.

There was nothing he could do so he went back home.

Pistorius Trial: Witness Timelines 6 (Pistorius)

Pistorius has now given his own testimony on the events of that night.

He does not give any specific times for the events, but here is their order as he describes them.  Here is a summary of his statements on this subject.

When he and Reeva went to bed, he locked the bedroom door and readied the cricket bat near the case of sunglasses and his gun near his bed.

He went to bed on the left-hand side, which was unusual for him but he had a shoulder injury.

He left the balcony door open and the fans running on it.  He did not mean to leave them in this position all night, but Reeva said she would bring in the fans and close and lock the door, and he fell asleep.  It was between 9 and 10pm.

At some point he woke up and saw that the balcony doors were still open and the fans still running.  Reeva asked him if he couldn't sleep.

He went to the balcony, got the fans, closed and locked the sliding door, probably drew the blinds (not sure) but did draw the curtains.  They are made of blackout material.  It was pitch dark with only the light from the LED amplifier visible.

Heard the sound of a window opening in the bathroom.  Was terrified of seeing people suddenly burst into the bedroom from the passage leading to the bathroom.

Hurried on his stumps in the pitch darkness, feeling his way to the bed, took his gun.

Whispered to Reeva to get down and phone police.

Then rushed down the passage to the bathroom on his stumps screaming at the intruders to get out, screaming to Reeva to get to safety.

Heard the toilet door slam.  Was now certain there were intruders.

Moved forward to bathroom entrance, shuffled along left-hand wall on the tiles, pointing gun in front of him.  No light, but saw that window was open. Wondered if they had entered using ladders.

Suddenly started screaming for Reeva to call police.  Felt terrified to see someone come out of toilet or through window and attack him.  Suddenly started shooting through door.

Walked back to bedroom holding gun, still shouting and shouting for Reeva.  Spoke to her in room.  Realized there was never any answer.  Felt for her in bed, then on the floor, then behind the curtains.  Always pointing gun towards corridor to bathroom.  "There was not much light but I could make out the passage".  There was a LED from the amplifier, it must have shed a tiny bit of light.

Only then began to realize that it might have been her in the toilet.  Went back to bathroom, tried to open toilet door, couldn't.  Went back to bedroom, opened curtains and doors, ran onto balcony and shouted for help.

Put on prosthetics.  Went back to bathroom, tried to kick door with them but didn't get anywhere.  Does not remember switching on light but remembers that at this point, light was on. Went back to bedroom and got cricket bat, hit door with it three times.  The first time it hit the frame.  He felt the shock of the bat in his hands.  The second time it made a little hole.  At that point he just wanted to see into the toilet to see if it was Reeva.  The third blow took down a whole panel.  He wrenched it out of the door and threw it back into the bathroom.  He leaned over the horizontal partition in the middle of the door and felt for the key.  It wasn't in the door.  He saw it on the floor, was able to lean through and grab it, unlocked the door and went in.  He stayed there crying over Reeva for "he doesn't know how long".  According to this testimony, the cricket bat blows would have occurred at 3:17am and the call to Stander at 3:19:03, so it would not have been more than a couple of minutes.  He placed the call to Netcare (for an ambulance) at 3:20:05.  At 3:21:33 he phoned security, a call lasting 9 seconds.  He does not recall this but sees it on the cell phone record.

He then opened 1/2 of the bedroom door (unlocked it), ran downstairs, opened the front door, ran back up and "ran into" the other 1/2 of the bedroom door to make a wider passage, it didn't give, he unlatched the bottom latch (there's also a top latch) but then the door opened.

CONTRADICTIONS WITH WITNESS TESTIMONY:
Pistorius describes the shouts and screams between the two sets of bangs as all coming from him.  His description does not resemble the panicked, continuous and intensifying screaming of a woman described by witnesses.

Pistorius describes the shots (first set of bangs) and subsequent activity as taking place in the darkness.  He does not say at what time he turned the lights on.  But Anette Stipp saw light in the bathroom at the time of the first set of bangs (3am) and continuously through to the second set of bangs (3:17am).

Pistorius states that he shouted from the balcony for help between the two sets of bangs.  This contradicts Johan Stipp's testimony of hearing the shouts after the second set of bangs, but matches Burger and Johnson's testimony; they both mention the cry of "help, help, help" shortly before the set of bangs at 3:17am.

Pistorius says the first set of bangs was made by the gunshots, but there were four gunshots and the Stipps heard only three bangs in the first set: in particular, Anette Stipp was lying awake and was certain that she did not miss any previous bang in her sleep.

Pistorius says that the second set of bangs was made by him hitting the door 3 times with the cricket bat, but Burger and van der Merwe heard four shots, Johnson "five or six".  The Stipps heard "three" and "two or three" but were talking to each other and into the phone at the time.  These witnesses also all agree that the shots were very close together, in rapid succession.  Michell Burger, the most precise of the witnesses in terms of description of the shots, describes one, then a tiny pause, then three extremely fast.  Charl Johnson as well as other witnesses stresses the impossibility of banging 3 times with a cricket bat so fast.