Oscar Pistorius is going back to jail, this time for murder.
The South Africa Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that the basis of the original verdict behind Pistorius' culpable homicide sentence was incorrect, and changed Pistorius' sentence to murder early Thursday morning, The Guardian reported, based on a live feed from SABC News on YouTube.
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Pistorius will return to Kgosi Mampuru II prison and await a new sentence for the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in Feb. 2013.
Judge Thokozile Masipa, who presided over Pistorius' original trial and ruled in favor of the culpable homicide, now must re-sentence Pistorius.
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Justice Eric Leach read the Court of Appeals' decision. He said Pistorius should have been found guilty of murder. The double-amputee sprinter who ran for South Africa in the 2012 Summer Olympics now faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. Leach conceded that Pistorius changed his version of accounts in his original trial multiple times.
"One really does not know what his explanation is for firing the fatal shots," he said, according to transcript of the appeal events on The Guardian website.
Pistorius originally was found guilty of culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter, and sentenced to five years in prison. The prosecution argued that Masipa misapplied the concept of "dolus eventualis" -- whether a person foresaw the consequences of his actions.
She accepted his argument that "he did not think his actions would lead to the death of the person behind the door," which likely would have led to a murder sentence. Masipa, however, believed that a reasonable person should have known that, and that led to the manslaughter charge, the Guardian reported. The Court of Appeals ruled that Masipa's interpretation of dolus eventualis was wrongly applied.
June Steenkamp, Reeva's mother, was among those in attendance at the appeals ruling.
Pistorius' life has been on hold since he took the life of Steenkamp in the early morning hours of Valentine's Day in 2013. The 2012 Olympian sprinter spent six months in a South African court room before being found guilty of culpable homicide on Sept. 12, 2014. He was sentenced on Oct. 21, 2014.
Stories of Pistorius' deteriorating health circulated as he served his time at Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria. Reports of a video of him playing soccer with an incarcerated mob boss indicated that he had lost considerable weight. He also reportedly was living off tins of food bought at the prison's convenience store for inmates because he feared being poisoned.
The South African Parole Board was set to release Pistorius on Aug. 21, 2015, after serving one sixth of his sentence, thus becoming eligible to be moved to house arrest under South African law. But under pressure from a women's rights group, Justice Minister Michael Masutha blocked his release until Oct. 19.
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