by Mandy Wiener
Mortimer told us that Oscar was in the company of former bouncer Guil Yahav, who had been previously acquitted of a murder charge. Yahav introduced Mortimer to Oscar. Mortimer is a close friend of former footballer Marc Batchelor, who had had his own run-in with Oscar previously, as well as self-confessed hit man Mikey Schultz. Oscar was moving in controversial circles at a time when he could ill afford to do so.
Yahav says Oscar called him earlier that afternoon to ask if he was keen to go out for a few drinks. ‘He doesn’t have many friends left in Joburg, so he probably wanted me to look after him that night,’ Yahav says. The pair go back many years – Yahav attended Oscar’s 21st birthday party at Hartbeespoort Dam.
It was also not unusual for Oscar to call Yahav looking for protection. ‘He often got into trouble. He used to call me from Pretoria at 3am, crying, drunk and emotional, saying he has problems. He could get a bit out of hand.’
The athlete met Yahav at the Marco Polo lounge in Sandton. ‘When he first saw me he had a sorry face, but that changed quickly. He said his legal fees were costing him a fortune and running into millions. He was chatting to other girls,’ adds Yahav.
The ex-bouncer says that by the time they decided to head over to the VIP Room, Oscar was ‘well on his way’. En route to the club, they bumped into the athlete’s cousin and her friend, who joined them.
Mortimer claims Oscar was drunk and aggressive and was slagging off his friends Justin Divaris and Darren Fresco for selling him out. He was also allegedly bragging about how influential his family was and pulled out his phone to show off pictures of army vehicles and allegedly said, ‘My family owns SANDF. I’ll piss on Zuma.’
If it is true, it wouldn’t have been the first time Oscar had shown contempt for the president. In January 2013, as the African Union’s peace torchbearer during the African Cup of Nations tournament, he was scheduled to appear at a children’s football match with Zuma in the Alexandra township in Johannesburg.
The previous night, 16 January, Oscar and Reeva were exchanging messages and making plans for the following day. ‘Want to come. Meet zuma?’ he asked at 10:49pm in a WhatsApp message.
‘ill kick his nuts,’ responded Reeva.
‘He is a runt. Rather have a chilled day,’ said the athlete.
Oscar’s apparent claim that his family ‘owns’ the defence force in South Africa may have been a reference to a company, owned by his uncle Theo, that builds and supplies armoured cars. N4 Trucks ‘re-manufactures’ armoured military vehicles that are used for guarding and peace-keeping efforts.
At the VIP Room in Sandton, the discussion between Oscar and Mortimer became heated. Yahav said he couldn’t hear what was being discussed, but Oscar leaned over to him and said that he wanted to sort Jared out. ‘I said he’ll do nothing of the sort and told him to sit down and behave.’ The argument escalated to the point that the pair pushed each other around until Oscar fell backwards onto a chair. Bouncers then stepped in.
Yahav says he was disappointed at how ‘arrogant’ Oscar was.
Oscar’s version of events was vastly different from that of Mortimer and Yahav. His PR agent issued a statement saying he was provoked:
We can confirm that Oscar was at a night club with one of his cousins. They sat in a quiet area of the private VIP section when they were approached by the individual identified as Mr Mortimer. The individual in question, according to our client, started to aggressively engage him on matters relating to the trial. An argument ensued during which our client asked to be left alone. Oscar left soon thereafter with his cousin. Our client regrets the decision to go into a public place and thereby inviting unwelcome attention.
Oscar’s uncle Leo also issued a statement that gave some insight into the athlete’s state of mind at the time:
Whilst Oscar venturing out into a public space with his cousin, in the current climate and whilst his court case is still underway was unwise, those of us closest to him have been witness to his escalating sense of loneliness and alienation. This, we believe, is underlying some of his self-harming behaviour. As a family we are counselling Oscar to find ways of dealing with his feelings of isolation.
Leo also acknowledged that Oscar may have made a mistake by going to the club:
Being in a public space such as this, and thereby putting himself in a place where this kind of confrontation could take place, was ill-considered. We do however believe that Oscar is grappling with an extreme level of emotional pain that is manifesting itself in some of his recent unwise actions and choices.
It was evident that Oscar was finding it difficult to handle the immense pressure of being at the centre of such intense public scrutiny and was overwhelmed by the months of standing trial for his girlfriend’s murder.
In late May 2013, Sky News broke an exclusive. It had managed to secure photographs of the bloody bathroom after the shooting, and images showing the bullet-riddled door and pools of blood in the toilet cubicle were featured in the network’s news bulletins. It was suspected that the photographs had been leaked by the police.
A few weeks earlier, the former lead investigator in the case, Hilton Botha, reportedly stated that media houses had offered to pay officers for exclusive pictures of Oscar after he had been arrested. A foreign media house even apparently offered a police officer R458 000 for a photograph of the toilet door.
As a result, the cellphones of 45 officers working on the case were confiscated and an official investigation was launched.
‘We wanted to get the original photograph that was sent to Sky to see if we can’t access the background information on the photograph to see what camera was used but no one wanted to help us,’ reveals a police officer close to the case, who doesn’t want to be named.
‘There was an official enquiry at the head office. All the police officials on the crime scene, all the cellphones were examined and downloaded. It was an instruction from the national commissioner. There was a big meeting at head office in the boardroom. Everyone who was on the crime scene had to report there, and when they walked in they said, “Instruction from the National Commissioner, hand over your phone. Hand over.” And they did the extractions there. All the cameras as well. Because those photos are not from the crime scene album, they’re different. They also took all the cameras and examined them as well. And nothing,’ says the officer.
‘There’s one or two cops that were on the crime scene who resigned. Their phones weren’t examined. And then there was one or two guys that, when their phones were seized, it wasn’t the phones that were used the day of the crime.’
In the end, no one was caught – but it is likely that a police officer made a lot of money selling those photographs, although Sky News has denied ever paying for them.
The leak came just days before Oscar was due to make another appearance in court on 4 June 2013. His routine appearance before acting Magistrate Daniel Thulare was, however, brief as the prosecution asked for a postponement to allow the police to conduct further investigations relevant to the case.
But Thulare used the opportunity to send a warning to the media. Although he didn’t mention the Sky News photos directly, the insinuation was clear. Thulare expressed concern over a potential ‘trial by media’ and told the state to investigate how information related to the case was being released into the public domain. During that routine court appearance, the case was postponed for two months. On the next day in court, the trial date would be set, the docket handed over to the defence, the indictment served and the witness list confirmed. This appearance inadvertently fell on what would have been Reeva Steenkamp’s 30th birthday on 19 August 2013.
Just days before Oscar was set to appear in court in August 2013, Gina Myers, her sister Kim, mother Desi and attorney Ian Levitt sat at a table on the roof terrace of a Hyde Park hotel. Their large dark glasses served a dual purpose, shielding the glare of the winter sun and discreetly hiding their red-rimmed eyes. The raw wound of Reeva’s death was far from healing.
Gina re
flected on the time they had spent with Reeva on her 29th birthday and how Gina would mark the occasion this time around. ‘I think back to her birthday last year; we all went to Mimo’s. That’s where she wanted to go for her birthday and she had a sparkler! It’s very surreal and it still doesn’t feel real. The other day it was six months and that’s just mind-boggling on another level. So the fact that it’s her birthday and she’s not here …’ she tails off.
‘We always usually have cake and we sat down for cupcakes all the time and now instead of having it with her, we are now going to have cupcakes for her, which is a little bit of a surreal thought and I think it can make us cry at any point, but we have to try and remember her and we have to try celebrate her, as hard as it is going to be. I think we will try our best to celebrate her.’
How would Reeva have spent her 30th birthday? Gina says her ‘Alfie’ had big plans. ‘She was going to Vegas for her 30th. One of our friends was getting married there and it was going to be, it was going to be a big year,’ she says excitedly. ‘You know, life carries on and you can get swept away and then you get those real moments when you realise that she’s not coming back and you are going to have to spend her birthday without her.’
There was an underlying frustration for the Myers family that Reeva’s birthday could be overshadowed by Oscar’s court appearance, but Gina stressed that it didn’t have to be that way.
‘I think it’s a choice. I think that if you want it to be about Reeva it will be. I know that every single person who loved her and cared for her and every single person she had an impact on; she gave talks to schools, she was becoming a big celebrity and she was doing well in her own career. And everybody she came into contact with, they will be remembering her and for us – we will be celebrating her. And for a lot of people it will be about her. It’s a choice.’
Gina spent part of Reeva’s 30th birthday in the public gallery of a court, a location she could never have predicted. Gina, Kim and Desi sat in the front row, an arm’s length from Oscar and just a few seats from his sister Aimee. Dressed in funereal black, they stared as Oscar, Aimee and Carl silently held one another’s hands and prayed as the commotion of photographers played out around them.
Reeva’s boyfriend stood in the dock as the accused, wiping away tears and blowing his nose as he was formally served with an indictment containing the most severe count: the charge of murder for killing Reeva Steenkamp.
With the packed courtroom hushed, Magistrate Nair set down the trial to run from 3 March until 20 March 2014 at the High Court in Pretoria. When asked by Nair if he was well, Oscar quietly replied, ‘Under the circumstances, Your Honour’ – but as proceedings were postponed, the BBC’s Andrew Harding tweeted that he had shaken the athlete’s hand and asked how he was. Oscar apparently shook his head and mouthed, ‘Not good.’
Less than an hour after the hearing ended, Carl Pistorius tweeted a photograph of Oscar and Reeva along with the words:
Remembered like yesterday. My life was impacted by u @reevasteenkamp & the lady u were! Always close to our hearts.
Facing the Law
With the release of the charge sheet and the witness list, the strength and strategy of the state’s case was revealed. When he went on trial on 3 March 2014 in Pretoria, Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was to face four charges: murder and three separate counts on the contravention of the Firearms Control Act. Signed by the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions for Gauteng North, Advocate GD Baloyi, the sheet contained details of the charges against Oscar and alternative charges on which he could be convicted:
COUNT 1: MURDER – READ WITH THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 51(1) OF ACT 105 OF 1997
In that upon or about 14 February 2013 and at or near 286 Bushwillow Street, Silverwoods Country Estate, Silver Lakes in the District of Pretoria the accused did unlawfully and intentionally kill a person, to wit, REEVA STEENKAMP, a 29 year old female.
COUNT 2: CONTRAVENTIONS OF SECTION 120(7) OF THE FIREARMS CONTROL ACT NO. 60 OF 2000
In that on or about 30 September 2010 and whilst travelling in a vehicle with other passengers, on a public road at or near Modderfontein, in the district of Kempton Park the accused did unlawfully discharge a firearm without good reason to do so, by firing a shot with his own 9 mm pistol through the open sunroof of the car they were travelling in.
COUNT 3: CONTRAVENTION OF SECTION 120(7) OF THE FIREARMS CONTROL ACT NO. 60 OF 2000
In that during January 2013 and at Tashas Restaurant, Melrose Arch in the district of Johannesburg the accused unlawfully discharged a firearm to wit, a Glock 27 pistol, without any good reason to do so. Tashas Restaurant is a public place.
COUNT 4: CONTRAVENTION OF SECTION 9 OF THE FIREARMS CONTROL ACT NO. 60 OF 2000
In that on or about 16 February 2013 and at or near 286 Bushwillow Street, Silverwoods Country Estate, Silver Lakes in the District of Pretoria the accused did unlawfully have in his possession ammunition, to wit 38x38 rounds without being the holder of (a) a licence in respect of a firearm capable of discharging that ammunition, (b) a permit to possess ammunition, (c) a dealer’s licence, manufacturer’s licence, gunsmith’s licence, import, export or in-transit permit or transporter’s permit issued in terms of this Act (d) or is otherwise authorized to do so.
The indictment also contained seven points listed under a summary of substantial facts, which outlined the essence of the state’s case:
1. The accused was involved in a relationship with the deceased. The deceased chose to spend the night with the accused at his private residence. They were the only occupants of that residence at the time.
2. The deceased, a 29 year old woman, was shot and killed in the home of the accused just after 03:00am on the 14th of February 2013.
3. The deceased had locked herself into the toilet cubicle, situated adjacent to the main bedroom. The accused armed himself with his 9 mm pistol and through the locked door, fired four shots at the deceased. The deceased was wounded and died on the scene. The cause of death is given in the post mortem report as ‘multiple gunshot wounds’.
4. Some of the state witnesses heard a woman scream, followed by moments of silence, then heard gunshots and then more screaming.
5. The accused said to witnesses on the scene that he thought she was an intruder. Even then, the accused shot with the direct intention to kill a person. An error in persona will not affect the intention to kill a human being.
6. On a separate occasion on 20 September 2010 the accused, who is the licensed owner of a 9 mm pistol, fired a shot through the sun-roof of the car whilst travelling on a public road. There were other passengers in that car.
7. In January 2013, the accused whilst having lunch with friends at a restaurant in Melrose Arch in Johannesburg, handled the firearm of one of his friends and a shot was discharged. This shot narrowly missed his friend and hit the floor of the restaurant.
Attached to the indictment was a list of 107 state witnesses who the prosecution could potentially call to give evidence during the trial. Only once the prosecution had closed its case, could the defence legal team consult with those witnesses who had not been called and potentially secure them as their witnesses.
This list contained a litany of Oscar’s neighbours from the Silver Woods estate, a large contingent of police officers and forensic experts, several of Oscar’s friends and ex-girlfriends, Reeva’s friends and some colourful characters with whom Oscar had previously had run-ins. These included footballer Marc Batchelor, several members of the Myers family, boxer Kevin Lerena, ex-girlfriends Melissa Rom and Samantha Taylor, and Samantha’s mother Trish, Justin Divaris and Samantha Greyvenstein as well as numerous members of Oscar’s own family.
Now that the defence was aware who the state intended calling and the strategy it would be adopting, it could retain the services of its own expert witnesses. The defence also hired The Evidence Room, an American forensic animation firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, that specialises in recreating crime scenes. Founded by 43-year
-old CEO Scott Roder in 2003, the company reportedly works on 100 cases a year and can charge as much as US$10 000 per video. In the run-up to the trial, Roder spoke to Time magazine, with the magazine describing the videos as ‘Pixar meets murder trial: illustrating car crashes and murders with faceless cartoons of people in jagged geometric landscapes.
‘We don’t give opinions, we don’t say “this is how it happened”, we describe the scene,’ Roder told Time. ‘That’s our job: to help people understand the bigger picture.’
The defence continued to work with University of Pretoria forensic geologist Roger Dixon and firearms and ballistics expert Thomas ‘Wollie’ Wolmarans. Forensic pathologist Reggie Perumal, who was retained by Oscar’s team on the day of the shooting, was believed to still be working with the defence. Time also reported that a US forensic scientist famous for testifying in the OJ Simpson murder trial was asked to join the team, but this was never confirmed by the defence.
But as much as the legal teams were preparing for the forensic battle that lay ahead, the broader belief was that the trial would turn on technical legal arguments. Researcher and author Antony Altbeker, who has written numerous books about policing and criminal trials in South Africa, believed that the outcome of the case would come down to the law. ‘The big point about Oscar’s matter is that we know who did it, we have his version and there’s no mystery about who killed Reeva. So the big questions are ultimately going to be legal questions. I don’t think the forensics will matter an enormous amount. The only way the forensics will really count in this trial, I think, is if there’s any part of them that undermine his credibility, where he has said x and the forensics show y,’ said Altbeker before the trial started.
Johannesburg-based criminal attorney Tyrone Maseko shares Altbeker’s view on the weight of the forensics versus the importance of the law in this trial. ‘In murder cases forensics can be very important; however, in this case I do not believe that they are determinative for the reason that Oscar admitted killing Reeva. Therefore the central questions become factual and legal. Insofar as some of the questions being factual, the forensics can be of assistance to the court in the sense that the court still needs to enquire into the reasonable possibility of the accused’s version of events,’ says Maseko.
