PRETORIA, South Africa - The trial of Oscar Pistorius was scheduled to resume on Monday as the defense begins to lay out its case that the double amputee track star killed his girlfriend in a tragic error and should not go to jail for murder.
Mr. Pistorius, 27, who competed in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012, faces a minimum 25-year sentence if he is convicted of premeditated murder in the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp, a glamorous model and law graduate, on Feb. 14, 2013.
He has denied the charge, saying he believed he was shooting at an intruder in his luxurious home when he fired four rounds from a handgun through a bathroom door, only to discover that Ms. Steenkamp, 29, was locked inside.
The runner may take the stand for the first time on Monday. News reports said the defense planned to call a pathologist, Jan Botha, as its first witness.
The case has been held up by the illness of a judicial assessor - one of two officials assisting Judge Thokozile Masipa. South Africa does not have jury trials, so it will be up to the judge to determine guilt or innocence.
The prosecution has sought to present Mr. Pistorius as irascible, possessive and trigger-happy. Prosecution witnesses have testified that they heard screams and shots coming from his house in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013.
Throughout the trial so far, he has displayed a range of emotions in the courtroom as the prosecution sought to prove that he killed Ms. Steenkamp in a violent rage.
He has sobbed, prayed, thrown up, buried his face in his hands and covered his ears in response to some of the testimony. But he has not so far spoken in his own defense.
'We need to know what he thought, and it's impossible to rely on that defense without him testifying,' said Kelly Phelps, a senior lecturer in law at the University of Cape Town, referring to Mr. Pistorius's insistence that he killed Ms. Steenkamp by mistake. 'What other evidence can the court rely on to determine what you were thinking?'
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