Oscar Pistorius Turns To Prayer, Prosecution Rests, Murder Trial Moves On
Oscar Pistorius, on trial in South Africa for murdering his girlfriend, has turned to a book on prayer, authored by the pastor of a New York City megachurch, according to the Christian Post.
Popularly known as the “Blade Runner”, and the first double-leg amputee to compete in the Olympics, Oscar is accused of intentionally shooting and killing girlfriend and model, Reeva Steenkamp, while she hid behind a locked bathroom door early Valentine’s morning, 2013. Pistorius claims it was a case of mistaken identity and he thought Steenkamp was an intruder.
The South African Olympian is scheduled to take the stand this week, in his defense, as the emotional and dramatic trial works toward a verdict. In preperation for his pivotal testimony, Oscar reportedly has been reading, Breakthrough Prayer: The Power of Connecting with the Heart of God by Jim Cymbala, Senior Pastor at Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, the worship home of over 16,000 congregants.
An excerpt from a review of the book by Publishers Weekly says, “Cymbala focuses largely on how to use prayer to become filled with joy and to cast away worries or fears, and he spends much of the book explaining how a life of faithful prayer can result in deep, lasting inner peace.”
Pistorius was seen reading the book as court concluded on Tuesday, and is also said to be reading an unnamed Bible study guide. Given his circumstance, and the crime he’s accused of committing, it’s not surprising Oscar is exploring prayer.
When asked his feelings Tuesday, Oscar described the past weeks in court as a “tough time,” and said, “We’ve got a lot ahead of us.”
In other developments, CNN reports the prosecution rested it’s case Tuesday. But not before “the bizarre spectacle” of Defense Attorney, Barry Roux, and a police cell phone officer, acted out “lovey-dovey texts” between Pistorius and Steenkamp
The exchange was the Defens’s effort to counter earlier texts shared in court that painted Oscar Pistorius as abusive, jealous and volatile, with Steenkamp saying, “I’m scared of you sometimes.”
Defense Attorney Roux pointed out that only four of the over 1,700 texts downloaded for the trial revealed Pistorius and Steenkamp fighting.
While that may be true, Prosecutor Gerrie Nel countered that the only long texts were those where Steenkamp was unhappy, scared, or both. Also, Oscar Pistorius offers no response for one of Steenkamp’s more significant texts, where she finishes by saying, “I can’t be attacked by outsiders for dating you and be attacked by you — the one person I deserve protection from.”
Oscar’s version of what exactly transpired before the shooting was also shown to have a major inconsistency. While Pistorius has maintained throughout that he and Steenkamp were in bed by 10 pm, and he didn’t awaken until the events that lead to the shooting began to unfold around 3 am, phone records show Oscar’s phone connected to the internet at 1:48 am and remained connected for over 5 minutes.
Perhaps this, and other discrepancies in his story, will be explained when Oscar Pistorius takes his scheduled turn on the stand Friday.
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