Trial
After killing Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines Day 2013 the Oscar trial began on 3 March 2014 with Reeva's and Oscar's family in attendance. The trial boiled down to Oscars team claiming he thought there was a intruder in the bathroom while the state prosecution claimed Oscar and Reeva had been fighting moments before and that Oscar had murdered Reeva.
There was a short break in the trial for Oscar to under go a psychiatric evaluation only to resume with the reports claiming he could be held criminally responsible. The trial ended on the 8 August 2014 with closing arguments.
Verdict
The verdict was read out on the 12 September 2014, more than 18 months after Oscar had shot and killed Reeva, with Judge Thokozile Masipa finding Oscar guilty of culpable homicide but not of murder. Oscar was also found guilty of reckless endangerment due to an incident with a firearm.
Sentence
On 21 October 2014 Oscar was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for the Valentines Day killing of Reeva. During sentencing Judge Masipa said "A non-custodial sentence would send the wrong message to the community, but a long sentence would also not be appropriate." A separate firearms charge received a 3 year sentence suspended for 5 years. The Pistorius family confirmed that Oscar would not appeal the judgement. While Oscar has been sentenced to 5 years he may be out in less than 1 year when he becomes eligible for a converted sentence after 10 months.
Along with his jail term the international paralympic committee have said the 5 year sentence would also mean a 5 year suspension.
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