Prosecution: Pistorius fatally shot girlfriend through locked bathroom door

[NBCNews]

New information is appearing in South African newspapers about the death of Oscar Pistorius' girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius will appear in court Tuesday for a bond hearing held on the same day as Steenkamp's funeral. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports. By Rohit Kachroo, Michelle Kosinski and Tracy Connor, NBC News"Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius fatally shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp as she sat inside the locked bathroom of his house in South Africa, a prosecutor told a court Tuesday.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said that there was nothing to support the Olympic and Paralympic star's claim that he thought Steenkamp was an intruder when he fired several times through the door at his home in a suburb of Pretoria early on Valentine's Day.

He said she had "nowhere" to go and her death must have been "horrific," insisting Pristorius was guilty of premeditated murder.

A statement was being read to the court in which Pistorius gave his account of what happened and denied "the false accusation in the strongest terms," adding that athlete was "deeply in love'' with Steenkamp, according to Reuters.

"I had no intention to kill my girlfriend," the statement said. But when it began to describe how Steenkamp was "doing her yoga exercises," Pistorius began crying uncontrollably.

Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair told him, "I know it's difficult... I'm going to find it difficult to concentrate... Maintain your composure."

The claims were made at a bail hearing -- described as a “little trial” by one expert -- that is being held to determine whether the double-amputee athlete should be freed pending trial.

As the defense and prosecution lawyers argued, the family and friends of slain model and law-school graduate Steenkamp held a tearful funeral Tuesday.

At the start of the hearing, Nair asked Pistorius "are you well?" to which the athlete shrugged and said "I guess." His eyes welled with tears.

Nel said Steenkamp had arrived in Pistorius' home sometime between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on the night before she died.

There was "no possible explanation to support" Pistorius' claim that he thought Steenkamp was an intruder, Nel said.

And he added that even if Steenkamp had been an intruder, the shooting would still have been the murder of a burglar.

'I want to kill'

Nel said Pistorius had armed himself, put on his prosthetic legs, walked to the bathroom and shot Steenkamp several times through the locked door as she sat on the toilet. "She locked that door for a purpose," Nel said.

"If I arm myself, walk a distance and murder a person, that is premeditated," he said, according to Reuters. "The door is closed. There is no doubt. I walk seven meters (just over 22 feet) and I kill."

"The motive is 'I want to kill'. That's it," he added. "This deceased was in a 1.4- (4.5 feet) by 1.14-meter little room. She could go nowhere. It must have been horrific."

The prosecutor also asked why a burglar would have locked themselves inside the bathroom.

After the shooting, Pistorius broke down the door and carried Steenkamp downstairs, where he met a security guard and a friend, according to the prosecution. He told them that he had thought Steenkamp was an intruder.

Pistorius' defense argued the sports star was not guilty of murder, insisting that he had thought Steenkamp was an intruder. They said Pistorius would describe the events in more detail in an affidavit.

The defense lawyer claimed other husbands had shot their wives thinking they were intruders and asked "Where's the premeditation?"

Nel said he was now "more convinced" about what happened following the defense's comments.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld Karyn Maughan, legal correspondent for South Africa news channel ENCA, told NBC's TODAY that if a premeditated murder charge stands, there would be dire consequences for Pistorius.

“If he can’t prove that her death was unintentional, then it is unlikely he will get bail and he also faces a life sentence in jail,” she said. “He must try to convince the court he shot her in confusion, thinking she was an intruder."

Pistorius has hired his own high-profile forensic expert to analyze the police reports and post-mortem exam, ENCA reported. His defense team includes lawyer Kenny Oldwage, who previously won an acquittal for a driver accused of killing Nelson Mandela's great-grandchild in a 2010 accident.

'Where's my little girl'

Model and law-school graduate Steenkamp's relatives are hoping for answers.

"Why my little girl?" her mother, June Steenkamp, asked in an interview with The Times of Johannesburg, calling her bubbly, blonde daughter "the most beautiful person who ever lived."

"All we have is this horrendous death to deal with ... to get to grips with," she said. "All we want are answers ... answers as to why this had to happen, why our beautiful daughter had to die like this."

Steenkamp's family and friends gathered at a 90-seat chapel in Port Elizabeth, where Steenkamp grew up, for her funeral.

"She's my little sister and she's gone," her brother, Adam, told ENCA. "There is a big hole there that cannot be filled by anything else."

Steenkamp and Pistorius had been dating for about three months, and she tweeted a Valentine's Day message hours before her death.

The track star, who captivated the world when he became the first double-amputee to run in the Olympics at last summer's London Games, was a gun enthusiast who once took a reporter writing a profile of him to a firing range.

A South African newspaper reported Monday that he nearly shot a friend by accident while handling another friend's gun at a Johannesburg restaurant.

"I had quite a fright because the bullet hit the ground centimeters from my foot," boxer Kevin Lerena told the Beeld newspaper, according to Agence France-Presse.

"For some reason it got caught on his trousers, flipped the safety pin and a shot went off. I wouldn't say he was negligent. Days afterwards he was still apologizing."

Ian Johnston, of NBC News, and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Mother of Pistorius' slain girlfriend: 'Why my little girl?'

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This story was originally published on Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:01 AM EST

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