The fourth day of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial Thursday, saw Charl Johnson, the witness and neighbor, being further grilled by the defense lawyer, Barry Roux, after he was accused of manipulating the testimony.
Roux accused Johnson of matching his statement with his wife, Michelle Burger, which she gave on the first and second day of the trial. She said that she heard "blood-curdling" screams of a woman before sounds of four gunshots, the night Pistorius' girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead last year.
However, Roux argued that the sounds they heard were actually of Pistorius hitting a bathroom door after realizing he accidentally shot Steenkamp and the voice was that of the double-amputee athlete who wailed in distress.
"I can confidently say I heard gunshots," Johnson said in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria , reports the Associated Press. "I'm convinced that I heard a lady's voice."
"Your statement is strikingly similar to your wife's statement," Roux said. Johnson replied saying, "My wife and I did speak about the incident after it happened. (But) I did not hear her testify or speak to her about what she said in court."
Johnson further said that their house was located just 177 meters away from the Pistorius' house in Pretoria. "The fear ... in the lady person's calls contrasted with a very monotone male voice," he said. "The man almost sounded embarrassed to be calling for help."
According to Johnson, he heard around five to six gunshots. But Roux pointed out that in his previous statement he had said that he "did not count the number of shots fired."
"Three hours later you changed this paragraph. And you corrected little things. That is a sign that you revisited that note and amended it," Roux said, reports Sky NEWS. He alleged that the witness might have changed the statement to match his wife's testimony.
Johnson added that he could hear jackal calls at his house from a far off distance in the night and that screams can easily travel the short distance between the houses.
Upon re-examination by Prosecutor Gerrie Nel, Johnson said that he heard no screams of domestic violence from the home, he heard sounds for help.
The sequence of events of the murder night could play a crucial role in the trial. Prosecutors argue that the 27-year-old paralympian and model Steenkamp had a row before the shooting. However, the defense maintains that Pistorius mistook his girlfriend for an intruder and opened fire for protection.
