The starting gun will fire Monday in the sensational murder trial of Oscar Pistorius, the legless South African Olympic sprinter nicknamed the Blade Runner.
Pistorius, 27, is charged with fatally shooting his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through a locked bathroom door in a fit of rage on Valentine’s Day last year.
Prosecutors allege Pistorius, the first athlete ever to compete in the Paralympics and Olympics, deliberately killed the 29-year-old stunner after the couple had an argument in his Pretoria home in the middle of the night.
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Late South African model and girlfriend of Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, Reeva Steenkamp. Steenkamp was shot and killed in February 2013.
But the defendant claims he thought he was firing at an intruder when he loosed four rounds from his 9-mm. handgun through the bathroom door and left his partner dead in a pool of blood.
“I felt a sense of terror rushing over me ... I believed that someone had entered my house. I was too scared to switch a light on,” Pistorius said in an affidavit read in Pretoria High Court last week.
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STR/AP
A police officer holds a bagged gun that was allegedly used in the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp.
“I grabbed my 9-mm. pistol from underneath my bed,” he said, claiming he wasn’t wearing his signature prosthetic legs at the time. “It was pitch dark in the bedroom and I thought Reeva was in bed ... I felt trapped as my bedroom door was locked and I have limited mobility on my stumps.”
Reporters have descended on Pretoria en masse to chronicle a case that has attracted worldwide attention, completely transfixed the Rainbow Nation and inspired comparisons to the marathon O.J. Simpson murder case in the U.S. two decades ago.
The media circus will include a 24-hour, pop-up channel wholly devoted to the trial, which is expected to last about three weeks.
Anja Niedringhaus/AP
Oscar Pistorius prepares to compete in a men's 400-meter heat during the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Local radio stations have vowed to broadcast the proceedings in their entirety and much of the court action will be televised despite TV cameras being a rarity in South African courtrooms.
Pistorius will stand trial in the same courthouse where Nelson Mandela, the late South African anti-apartheid activist and president, once faced prosecution.
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FRENNIE SHIVAMBU/EPA
Reeva Steenkamp (left) and Oscar Pistorius attend an event in South Africa in 2012.
The runner became a national celebrity after winning six Paralympic gold medals and making history as the first double-amputee athlete to compete in a track event at the Olympics, and his glamorous dalliance with Steenkamp captivated South Africa.
But prosecutors allege the tabloid romance went horribly wrong because Pistorius was secretly an angry, unhinged young man with an unhealthy obsession for powerful guns and violence.
Their witness list is comprised of 107 neighbors, relatives, first responders and other people linked to the case. More witnesses may be added to the list as Pistorius fights charges which include premeditated murder and a number of different firearms counts.
TAL COHEN/EPA
Olympic hero Oscar Pistorius’ trial is expected to be an international sensation, much like the O.J. Simpson trial of the 1990s.
South African law mandates life in prison for anyone found guilty of murder and a judge will decide the case because the country holds no jury trials.
Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa, the trial judge, is only the second black woman appointed to the bench of the South African high court since the end of apartheid.
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M-NET CARTE BLANCHE/AP
Leaked footage shows Reeva Steenkamp entering the secured access to the Silverwoods housing estate, home of Olympian athlete Oscar Pistorius, some hours before she was shot and killed.
Pistorius claims he tragically realized Steenkamp was his shooting target only after it was too late.
“I fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to Reeva to phone the police,” he said in the affidavit. “She did not respond and I moved backwards out of the bathroom, keeping my eyes on the bathroom entrance ... When I reached the bed, I realized that Reeva was not in bed. That is when it dawned on me that it could have been Reeva.”
The sprinter insists the killing at his home in the high-security Silverwoods community was all a horrible and innocent mistake.
STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images
Pistorius during a previous court hearing. A special pop-up channel in South Africa will air his trial.
“I returned to the bathroom calling her name. I tried to open the toilet door but it was locked,” Pistorius said. “I rushed back into the bedroom and opened the sliding door exiting onto the balcony and screamed for help."
Prosecutors contend Steenkamp locked herself behind the toilet door to escape from Pistorius.
RELATED: OSCAR PISTORIUS SEEN SHOOTING AT GUN RANGE BEFORE KILLING GIRLFRIEND
AP Photo - File
Oscar Pistorius (right) seen heading to a holding cell on Feb. 14.
They maintain he followed her into the bathroom and shot her four times through the door, hitting her in the head, arm and hip.
Even if the judge determines that Pistorius mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, she could still find him guilty of the South African equivalent of manslaughter for firing through the door.
“You only fire four shots if you want to kill,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel said at a recent bail hearing. “He should have foreseen the consequences of firing four shots in a 1.4-meter-by-1.4-meter room ... He must have fired to kill.”
AP
Pistorius’ trial will be one of the rare occurences in which cameras will be allowed into the South African courts.
Prosecutors have sought to unlock data from iPhones found in the home and met with Apple officials in the U.S. days before trial.
Pistorius watched porn on his cellphone on the same day he killed Steenkamp, court documents leaked last week allege.
But the runner’s family is standing behind him, porn or no porn.
“We love Oscar and believe in him, and will be standing by him throughout the coming trial,” said an uncle, Arnold Pistorius.
dbeekman@nydailynews.com