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Oscar Pistorius Trial: Week 3, Wednesday 19 March 2014

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Ballistic expert, Chris Mangena, will on Wednesday reveal in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria whether Oscar Pistorius was on his stumps or wearing his prosthetic legs when he shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp.

Mangena gave his testimony-in-chief on Tuesday detailing how he reconstructed the crime scene after being given the toilet door with four bullet holes in it.

Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Mangena described to the court how he had to use the photographs of Reeva Steenkamp’s post-mortem as well as images collected by police photographer, Barend van Staden.

The forensic expert also explained the difficulties he encountered when trying to determine the trajectory of the bullets as three of the four hit Steenkamp and not the wall.

Mangena’s investigation also measured the height of the bullets to determine if Pistorius was wearing his prosthetic legs or was on his stumps when he shot four times through the toilet door.

In cross-examination, defence advocate Barry Roux is expected to grill Mangena on why it took three weeks for a ballistics expert to examine the crime scene.

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