Pistorius lied about gunshot in restaurant – Witness

Kevin Lerena, a witness in the murder trial of South African double-amputee Olympic sprinter, Oscar Pistorius, on Wednesday presented him as a careless and cowardly man.
Lerena said Pistorius asked another man to take the blame for a gunshot he fired in a restaurant.
The witness, Kevin Lerena, a boxer, told the court that he was sitting at a Johannesburg restaurant with Pistorius and three others last year when one of them, Darren Fresco, passed his gun to the athlete.
“A shot went off in the restaurant and there was complete silence, and exactly where my foot is stationery there is a hole in the floor,” he said.
The witness said Pistorius was concerned about his exit from the restaurant and asked Fresco to tell the restaurant staff he had discharged the gun.
Lerena said: “Fresco did tell the restaurant staff that he had fired the shot.”
Another witness, Jason Loupis, a restaurant manager, told the court that Fresco told him that the gun fell from his tracksuit pants.
The incident was one of the three gun-related charges that Pistorius faces at the trial, in addition to the premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius said that on the night of the killing, he mistook his girlfriend, Steenkamp, for an intruder, who entered through the bathroom window.
He said that after firing shots through the door, he realised that she was not in bed, so he broke the door with a cricket bat and carried her out.
Three of Pistorius’ neighbours have cast doubt on his version of the events.
Michelle Burger and her husband, Charl Johnson, said they heard a woman scream several times and a man cry for help before shots were fired.
Another neighbour, Estelle van der Merwe, said she heard loud voices before gunshots.
Johnson, who had already appeared in court on Tuesday, was questioned further on Wednesday.
Pistorius’ lawyer, Barry Roux, tried to cast doubt on Johnson’s credibility, suggesting he and his wife tailored their testimonies to match each other.
Roux argued that Johnson could have heard Pistorius hit the door with the cricket bat, instead of gunshots but the witness insisted he could recognise gunshots.
Johnson admitted he did not understand why he and his wife had also heard a man cry for help.
The trial, featuring more than 100 witnesses, was expected to last three weeks and if found guilty of murder, Pistorius could receive a life sentence, which would require him to spend a minimum of 25 years in prison.
dpa/NAN.