12.48 "We thought is was a break-in because we heard both a woman and a man shout for help" Mr Johnson says.

Mr Johnson says he looked on Google Earth to work out how far their house was from that of Oscar Pistorius - "I worked out 150m"
— Aislinn Laing (@Simmoa) March 4, 2014

He, like his wife, assumed other neighbours would have been closer, so never thought we would have to speak to police about what the two heard. "We realised no other witnesses had come forward who were clsoer than us".

12.35 "I could hear she was in trouble, it was clearly distress calls... The last scream faded after the last gunshot was fired," Mr Johnson said. "I initially said I heard five or six shots."

12.29 Mr Johnson says he heard a "clearly distressed" woman screaming. "It felt like a couple of minutes. I heard a lady shout 'help' and then a male voice shout 'help, help,help'," he said.

"We thought people were being attacked in an armed robbery." he said.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

The State vs Oscar Pretorius (Murder 1)



Trial Day 3

Start 9:30 AM Wednesday (3-5-14)

9:00AM J/Burg ----> 2:00AM ET ----> 1:00AM CT ---->12:00AM MT ---->11:00PM PT





Links for Live Streaming

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_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Started on Mar 5, 2014
The third State witness, Charl Johnson continue with his testimony on Day Three of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial.


08.09 Roux believes he has just tripped Mr Johnson up. The witness said the couple did not discuss what happened that morning, but he has just talked about the number of shots she remembers (Miss Burger was convinced of four, Mr Johnson 'five or six'). Roux says this was only in her evidence, not in her statement, which proves they "contaminated" their evidence by discussing it.

"You could have just as well stood together in the witness box" Roux says. "Mr Johnson, maybe I must stop you here because you don’t know what you are doing to yourself."

08.05 Mr Johnson says it is not a coincidence that two people who were 10ft away from each other have similar recollections

07.59 "I heard the screams during the shot" Mr Johnson says. He said the last scream was about two seconds after the shots. Pistorius has his head in his hands as Roux talks of sounds or shots and screams.

07.51 Defence counsel Barry Roux is trying to raise doubts about the integrity of Miss Burger and Mr Johnson's testimony by pointing out the similarities. Mr Johnson agrees they are similar. He says he made notes about the shooting before making his statement.The husband and wife both say they went to bed “between nine and ten”, using the same words.

Many South Africans go to bed early. 9pm, for witnesses Johnson and Burger. This is an early to bed, early to rise country....
— Erin Conway-Smith (@ejcs) March 5, 2014

07.37 Charl Johnson, the third witness, has just told the court that he has received a "large" number of calls after his mobile number was read out in court yesterday. He describes some of them as intimidating:

One of the messages said: "We know Oscar didn't kill Reeva, why are you lying in court?" He says he feel his privacy has been compromised severely.

07.30 Pistorius's former girlfriend Samantha Taylor has just taken her seat in the courtoom, suggesting she may be giving evidence today.

07.26 The premier of the province, Nomvula Mokonyane, has just come entered the court. She has sat down next to Reeva Steenkamp's cousin. "Just be strong," she tells them.

Meanwhile, representatives of the ANC Women's League - who have been outside the court for the first few days - have moved into the first row today. Seemingly no sign of The Pistorians today.

#OscarPistorius Also in court today us the Minister of Women and Children with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana
— Alex Crawford (@AlexCrawfordSky) March 5, 2014

07.18 Pistorius has just arrived in court, with 13 minutes to go. He is unpacking his bag

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

08.16

#Pistorius Judge says Barry Roux went too far. He backs down

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Ha...

They have a time of this witness phone call BEFORE he heard gun shots (he thinks) and then 1 and half minutes later a phone call by OP to guy just after he broke down door with bat.... this PROVES that what they think are gun shots are in fact cricket bat noises.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

08.30 Roux reveals that Pistorius called estate security manager shortly after breaking down toilet door with cricket bat. Mr Johnson called security at 3:17 am, which "coincides" with time of Pistorius hitting door with cricket bat, says Roux.

08.23 Mr Johnson assumed the noises he heard were linked to a burglary as domestic violence uncommon in that area.

08.21 Roux: "you woke up, heard scream, listened, heard scream again...only then your wife woke up? Mr Johnson: "yes"

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

This witness is IMPRINTED.... like so many posters on true gossip forums... faced with facts (reality) that contradict his opinion... he stubbornly sticks to his opinion and denies reality... that is delusion.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Roux suggests that the timings of phone calls made on the night mean that Johnson heard Pistorius breaking down the door of the bathroom with a cricket bat. It’s 3.17 am now when you hear the shots. At 3.19 and 50 seconds, one and a half minutes later, Oscar Pistorius called friend for help: “So we know Oscar Pistorius called friend, Justin Stander, immediately after breaking door,” says Roux.

Johnson placidly insists that he heard gun shots.

“Sometimes people genuinely believe something has happened and then that is what they tell people. It is a different thing from it being correct,” he says. “A man’s life is at stake… let’s look at other possibilities,” says Roux.

He also says that the idea of hearing a man scream “does not fit”. Johnson sticks to his version.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Roux asking for adjournment... to look at notes Johnson made at the time of the incident.



11.00 We're currently in adjournment at the North Gauteng High Court, where witness Charl Johnson is supplying iPad notes of his recollections of the events of 14th February.

We're on a break now because Johnson is providing the court with a copy of the notes he made of the events of 14th February, to prove that there are no inconsistencies between his initial recollections and his court testimony. This seems like a bit of a gamble. When Johnson mentioned these notes, Roux said (with a hint of menace), that he was sure Johnson wouldn't mind providing the court with a copy of them. But Johnson replied perfectly calmly that he was happy to, and that he had a copy on his iPad with him.

Johnson's notes could go either way, then. They could corroborate his version more firmly - or even add additional damaging evidence. In that case, Roux's gamble - demanding to see a copy - might be a bit of a risky move.

12.45 It's an early lunch at the Pistorius trial, so we didn't have a lot of action between the tea-break and now. We were supposed to return to see copies of Charl Johnson's notes distributed to the court, but the defence's Gerrie Nel came back to say they needed more time to make copies, and asked permission to let Johnson stand down in the interim. Judge Masipa acceded.

And so the state called their next witness: boxer Kevin Lerena

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

10.25 The witness on the stand this morning, Pistorius' friend and boxer is said to have asked his other friend Darren Fresco: "Please Darren, just say it was you".

10.11 Strange:

For the 2nd day running, the smartly-dressed Oscar is clutching a laptop case and, incongruously, a brightly-coloured farm animals lunchbox
— Aislinn Laing (@Simmoa) March 5, 2014

10.03 Roux jokes he'll let Kenny Oldwage quiz Lerena because he doesn't want to cross-examine a boxer, everyone laughs. The court has now adjourned for two hours.

09.58 Lerena says he was scratched by the shot, there was blood on his toe. "There could have been a fatality, I was shocked". He said Pistorius kept apologising. Lerena says Pistorius asked Fresco to take responsibility.

09.56 Darren Fresco, one of four friends eating at the restaurant, passed his gun under the table to Pistorius, saying "I'm one up" (meaning it was loaded with one bullet). The gun then went off in the restaurant and everyone wen silent, Lerena says.



09.50 Quite confusingly for us, the prosecution has decided to move away from events of Valentine's Day to hear evidence about second reckless firing charge. He will describe a shooting incident at Tasha's restaurant in Melrose Arch, an upscale Johannesburg shopping complex, a month or so before the killing.

09.46 The fourth witness, Kevin Lerena, is now being sworn in. He is a professional boxer and friend of Pistorius. As he is already well-known he is happy to give evidence on camera.

09.44 Erin Conway-Smith in court says the cricket bat used on the night of the killing has been brought into the courtoom, wrapped in plastic.

09.38 An answer to why there are so many local politicians in court this morning:

#OscarPistorius Gauteng Premier + ANC politician took time out during the break to give her thoughts re trial. There's an election this year
— Alex Crawford (@AlexCrawfordSky) March 5, 2014

09.34 To recap, defense lawyer Barry Roux said there were differences between the statements that Mr Johnson and Miss Burger had given to police after the shooting, and testimony that they gave in court. Both the statements and the testimony shared similarities, Roux said, implying that the couple had contaminated their evidence by talking through what they were going to say.

09.27 Looks like both sides and coming back in and should start again any second.

08.58 Judge has called for a break.

08.53 Roux accidentally calls witness Johnson "Mr Pistorius" as it is revealed the witness was measuring up for new security doors in his home within two hours of the incident.

Roux: "it was an incident you interpreted as a house robbery and you considered it so serious you got up at 4am to measure the doors."
— Aislinn Laing (@Simmoa) March 5, 2014

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Springing this surprise restaurant witness makes the prosecution look desperate.

The firearms charges being there at all seems a bit desperate to me.

It seems strange that pre-dating, different incidents should get lumped with a murder charge. Obviously they want to introduce evidence of past "bad acts" involving a firearm to suggest a "history" of misuse of a firearm... which is at best minor circumstantial evidence in regards the real charge of murder.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Back.... finally



12.11 Pistorius friend and boxer Lerena says Fresco took the blame to the restaurant's management, saying the gun's catch got caught in his trousers

12.02 OK, we're back. Roux says Pistorius did not hear in the loud restaurant when his friend Fresco said the gun had a bullet it in. His lawyer says he wanted to look at the gun as he had plans to buy one. Roux says Pistorius was "upset" to have been given a loaded gun. Witness Lerena says Pistorius looked shot and was extremely apologetic when the gun went off.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Next witness... last minute want to not be shown on camera.... granted

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light