Oscar Pistorius Murder Trial Verdict: 'Blade Runner' Begins 5-Year Prison Sentence for Killing Reeva Steenkamp
South African track star Oscar Pistorius spent his first night in the hospital wing of a prison facility after he was sentenced to five years behind bars on Tuesday for fatally shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last year.
Pistorius, who is also known as the "Blade Runner," shot Steenkamp on Feb. 14, 2013. The Olympic champ pleaded not guilty to first degree murder, arguing that he shot her by mistake because he thought she was a home intruder.
In September, Judge Thokozile Masipa found him not guilty of first degree murder, but guilty of culpable homicide. She then sentenced the double-amputee runner to five years at Pretoria's Central Prison, which is notorious for being overcrowded and violent, according to NBC News. The prison was recently renamed the Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area.
According to prison commissioner Zebilon Monama, Pistorius seemed confused, tired and tense as he entered the facility and went through procedures.
"After he saw the chaplain our psychologist went to see him just to try to talk to him," said Monama, reports the Associated Press.
Pistorius also underwent a medical examination before he was locked in a cell located in a separate wing of the prison. The double amputee runner, ad eight other inmates with disabilities, will be under 24-hour observations by medical workers.
"Now the hospital section of the center accommodates two offenders with prosthetic legs, two blind offenders and five offenders on wheelchairs: Nine in total," correctional services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said in a statement.
During his sentencing hearing, Pistorius' defense team argued that prison would be unsuitable for the sports icon due to his disability, but Judge Masipa dismissed that claim.
Under the law in South Africa, the disabled athlete is only required to serve 10 months in prison, or one-sixth of his sentence, before he can ask to be moved to community supervision instead or house arrest.
During an exclusive interview with ITV News' Good Morning Britain, the parents of Reeva Steenkamp said that they have forgiven Pistorius, although they believe he has not been fully honest about the night he killed her.
"I've already forgiven a long time ago," said June Steenkamp.
"The hatred a lot of people feel towards him as a person, you can't carry that along with you...it will just make you ill." She said they were "satisfied by the sentence" but "there's more to the whole story than anybody knows. Only Oscar knows."
She added: "We don't want revenge, we want a fair punishment under the circumstances of his disability. We wouldn't have wanted him to go to jail and be abused, but he will realize that he can't go around doing that, he can't kill somebody like that."
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