Oscar Pistorius was found guilty of murder by a South African appeals court on Thursday, a decision that overturns the former Paralympian's lesser conviction of manslaughter for the 2013 shooting death of his up-and-coming model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius has been under house arrest, living in his uncle's mansion in Pretoria, according to the New York Daily News.
"The accused ought to have been found guilty of murder on the basis that he had fired the fatal shots with criminal intent," Justice Lorimer Eric Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal said. Pistorius is looking at a minimum of 15 years in prison, the standard in South Africa.
"It is inconceivable that a rational person thought he was entitled to fire at this person with a heavy-duty firearm," Leach said, according to ABC News. "He ought to have been convicted not of culpable homicide on that count but of culpable murder."
Finally justice served atleast the guilty verdict should have been the verdict from the word go #RIPReeva
— RSA Min of Sport (@MbalulaFikile) December 3, 2015
Pistorius was arrested after he shot Steenkamp four times through a locked bathroom door on Valentine's Day 2013. Pistorius claimed he thought there was an intruder. Prosecutors maintained the couple was having an argument when Pistorius shot his girlfriend.
What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay — Reeva Steenkamp (@reevasteenkamp) February 13, 2013
"The identity of his victim is irrelevant to his guilt," Leach said, according to the New York Daily News.
"As a matter of common sense at the time the fatal shots were fired, the possibility of the death of the person behind the door was clearly an obvious result," the judge said, according to the BBC. "And in firing not one but four shots, such a result became even more likely."
Pistorius was not present at the time of the ruling, although Steenkamp's mother was.
The fallen athlete could appeal again, but he would have to prove his constitutional rights had been violated during the course of the appeals process. Judge Thokozile Masipa, who had previously found "Blade Runner" guilty of what Americans would consider "manslaughter," will sentence Pistorius sometime in the future.
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