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NEWS STREAM

Prosecutor Challenges Oscar Pistorius's Version of Events

Aired April 14, 2014 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MONITA RAJPAL, HOST: Hello, I'm Monita Rajpal in Hong Kong. Welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Oscar Pistorius is hammered by the prosecution getting emotional as he tries to defend himself in his murder trial.

A deadline passes for pro-Russian prosecutors to leave government buildings in Ukraine.

And Bubba Watson does it again at Augusta, winning the Masters for the second time in three years.

Oscar Pistorius has been back on the stand in his murder trial. He has faced another grilling by the prosecutors. Gerrie Nel has sought to undermine the defendant's reliability and credibility. Today, he continued to hone in on minute details in the Olympian's versions of events. The trial was briefly adjourned twice when Pistorius became upset during questioning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERRIE NEL, PROSECUTOR: Is because you know exactly. You fired at Reeva. These other versions of yours cannot work.

OSCAR PISTORIUS, DEFENDANT: Not true, my lady.

NEL: You did.

Why are you getting emotional now?

PISTORIUS: I did not fire at Reeva.

NEL: My lady, the witness is...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJPAL: Well, the court is set to return from lunch. Of course we will take you there live when it is back in session.

Well, let's take you live now to CNN legal analyst Kelly Phelps. She's outside the courthouse in Pretoria in South Africa.

Actually, we have been told that court is back in session. Let's take you there live now to it.

(OSCAR PISTORIUS TRIAL)

RAJPAL: Oscar Pistorius's sixth day on the witness stand and fourth day being questioned by the prosecution has now just come to an end. Court has been adjourned until tomorrow morning. It has been a very intense day when it comes to this kind of testimony that the prosecution has been ripping apart the terminology, the words that Pistorius has been using in his testimony.

After their lunch break, Oscar Pistorius was asked about the night again. He fired at the bathroom, or the toilet door.

He says I fired because I got a fright. Gerrie Nel, the prosecuting lawyer, he said it was all -- asked him if it was all an accident, even if there was an intruder and you shot -- and he asked him would that still be an accident. He says, it was an accident. And Gerrie Nel then asked him who do you blame for this? He said I blame myself for this accident.

Then he also talked about -- he was also asked when at one point where did he also look for Reeva if she wasn't in the bathroom, if she wasn't on the floor where he thought -- where Pistorius thought that she would be after he told him -- after he told her to get onto the floor when he thought he heard someone in the bathroom.

He said he felt for the curtains with his hands, but he didn't feel anything.

And of course a lot of the questioning went on to the timeline of when he went from the bathroom to the curtains, how he got to the curtains, if there was a fan in his way.

Also, he was also questioned the fact that it was also pitch dark, how was he able to see anything.

He also said at -- towards the end of this particular testimony after the lunch break, it was focusing on the balcony. He went onto the balcony and he screamed for help, that's what Pistorius had said.

And after that, he then put his prosthetic legs on. "I put my legs on as quick as I could," he said. "And then I ran back to the toilet."

And then the prosecuting lawyer Gerrie Nel said why would you take your gun along with you? And he said, "you're building a version of the case that is so improbable."

And Oscar Pistorius then said, "I wasn't in a rational frame of mind."

It has been, as I've been saying, a war of words there at the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius. Each side has been pressing their version of the events at the Olympic sprinter's house.

Isha Sesay takes a look now at both accounts of the most critical moments on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So here is Pistorius's account of what happened. In the early hours of Valentine's Day, he and Reeva were asleep in the bedroom. He got up to bring fans in from the balcony and to close the door. At the same time, Reeva got up to use the bathroom, but he didn't realize that and says he thought she was still in the bed.

Then he heard a noise, grabbed his pistol from under the bed and moved down the hall to confront the intruder. He heard a noise in the bathroom, thought the intruder must be inside, and he shot his gun.

The prosecution has a different theory. They say there was shouting and screaming around the time of the shooting. It was so loud the neighbors could hear it. They're implying either that the couple had a fight and that's why he killed her, or that she screamed when she was first shot and Pistorius should have realized his mistake and stopped shooting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: Isha Sesay reporting there.

Prosecution questioning in the Oscar Pistorius trial continues tomorrow with the Olympic and Paralympic athlete on the witness stand.

Of course we will have some analysis on the day's events in court from Robyn Curnow next.

But that is News Stream for this Monday. I'm Monita Rajpal. World Business Today is next.

END