As closing arguments are set to begin Thursday in the murder trial of South African double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, both the prosecution and defense have one last chance to impress their arguments upon Judge Thokozile Masipa.
Oscar Pistorius sells home in which he killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp
It is Masipa who will determine Pistorius' fate.
International Business Times reiterated earlier reports that some of the evidence at the crime scene was mishandled, possibly creating doubt in the prosecution's evidence that Pistorius' shooting of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp during the early morning hours of Valentine's Day, 2013 was intentional.
Among the mistakes made was testimony by former police Col. G.S. van Rensberg admitting under cross-examination by the defense that he witnessed a ballistics expert handling Pistorius' gun - the murder weapon - without gloves, and that one of Pistorius' wristwatches went missing from the scene.
Judge Thokozile Masipa has considerabe evidence to sift through in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial
The watch was estimated to be worth as much as $10,000, according to France24.com. It was among eight timepieces collected from the season
"I saw those watches and I said, this is tempting for any person because this is [sic] expensive watches," he told the court, according to France24.com. Van Rensberg said he was furious when he discovered that the watch had disappeared from the evidence.
"I said, 'I can't believe it. We were just there. How can this watch be gone?' " he told the court.
The defense is arguing that another key piece of evidence - the actual door through which Pistorius shot Steenkamp - also was mishandled. According to ABCNews.com, defense attorney Barry Roux said that the police improperly stored the door, which was taken from its hinges at Pistorius' home.
https://www.france24.com/en/20140314-police-mishandled-evidence-pistorius-murder-case-south-africa/
ABCNews.com added that media reports claimed that the door was not properly secured but was kept in the Boschkop Police Station Commander's office for quite some time.
Col. Johannes Vermuelen testified that markings on the door and a cricket bat Pistorius used to break into the bathroom after the shots were fired indicated that Pistorius was without his prosthetic legs when he struck the door with the bat.
Pistorius told police on the night of the murder that he put on his prosthetic legs and then bashed the door to get to Steenkamp.
Vermuelen said "something" happened to the door after it was photographed on March 8 last year but he was unable to say what exactly occurred.
A photo taken of the door also showed what appeared to be a police boot print, which gave further credence to the argument of improper storage.
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