Hours before Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend to death in his bathroom, she professed her love to the Blade Runner in a Valentine’s Day card that he read aloud at his murder trial Tuesday.
“Roses are red, violets are blue. I think today is a good day to tell you that . . . I love you,” Pistorius read from the Feb. 14, 2013, card, which Reeva Steenkamp signed “Reeves” with a smiley face and three “X”s.
The love note could be key to the defense’s case, because it might show the couple’s relationship was strong the day Pistorius shot Steenkamp, claiming to mistake her for an intruder.
A withering, five-day cross-examination of Pistorius finally ended on Tuesday with a prosecutor firing sarcastic, parting shots at the once-beloved Olympian. Pit-bull prosecutor Gerrie Nel taunted Pistorius — asking why anyone else but the defendant should be held accountable for Steenkamp’s death.
“We should blame somebody . . . Should we blame Reeva?” Nel asked.
“No, my lady,” Pistorius said, addressing Pretoria Judge Thokozile Masipa, who will solely decide his fate.
Nel dramatically reminded the court that the hollow-point, 9mm bullets that killed Steenkamp were fired by the 27-year-old athlete.
“Who should we blame for the Black Talon rounds that ripped through her body?” Nel said.
The prosecutor barely let a moment pass without launching an attack on Pistorius and characterizing him as a trigger-happy hothead.
Steenkamp was shot three times, out of four bullets fired, while cowering in his bathroom.
“You fired four shots through the door whilst knowing that she was standing behind the door,” Nel said. “She was locked into the bathroom and you armed yourself with the sole purpose of shooting and killing her.”
“That’s not true,” replied Pistorius, who drew worldwide adoration in London two years ago by running the Olympics on his two prosthetic “blade” legs.
Following cross-examination, defense lawyer Barry Roux sought to paint his client in a more gentle light. Roux asked Pistorius to sum up his emotions in the moments immediately after realizing he had shot Steenkamp and not an intruder.
“I was terrified. I feared for my life. I was just scared,” Pistorius said. “I was thinking about what could happen to me, to Reeva. I was just extremely fearful.”
After he was excused from the witness stand, Pistorius rubbed his eyes and accepted a tissue from his sister, Aimee.
The defense then called to the stand a forensic expert, who said that the sprinter’s bedroom was almost completely dark when Steenkamp was shot.
Pistorius’ lawyers want to show that the runner did not realize Steenkamp wasn’t in bed with him when he opened fire.
“With your back to the light, I couldn’t see into the darker areas of the room,” former police forensic specialist Roger Dixon told the court.
Pistorius faces life behind bars if he’s convicted of murder.