Oscar Pistorius’ house in Pretoria, where the former Olympic sprinter shot and killed his girlfriend/AFP
PRETORIA, South Africa – Oscar Pistorius has sold the upmarket Pretoria home where he shot dead his girlfriend, as legal fees mounted from his lengthy murder trial that continued Friday.
The Paralympian’s estate agent Ansie Louw told AFP she now had a buyer for the $480,000-plus house.
“We went through all the offers. We have accepted one of the bids and the transfer process is now under way.”
The house was put on the market earlier this year as the “Blade Runner” star sprinter struggled to pay a small army of lawyers who are fighting the murder charges on his behalf.
They include three of South Africa’s leading defence attorneys, a raft of ballistics and forensic experts and a US crime scene reconstruction company.
The total cost is estimated at $9,000 a day. His trial, initially slated to last three weeks, is now in its third month.
On Friday the defence team attempted to show that police investigators got the order of shots wrong, and that the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp through the door of the toilet was an accident as Pistorius claims. READ: Family denies Pistorius took acting classes for trial.
Ballistics expert Wollie Wolmarans said Steenkamp was close to the toilet door and leaning slightly forward when the first of four “rapid” gunshots hit her hip.
The next bullets hit her arm and hand, and the final bullet hit her head as she was falling backward.
The expert testimony bolsters the defence claim that Steenkamp was reaching for the toilet door handle when she was shot by Pistorius, not cowering in fear.
Pistorius claims he shot his 29-year-old girlfriend by accident, believing her to be an intruder in his Pretoria home.
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