Oscar trial: Judge Masipa rejects house arrest

Judge Thokozile Masipa rejected a suggested sentence of house arrest and community service for paralympian Oscar Pistorius in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

"The sentence suggested by Mrs Vergeer and Mr Maringa would not be appropriate," Masipa read while sentencing Pistorius for the culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp.

Masipa sentenced Pistorius to five years for Reeva's death.

He was also sentenced to three years, suspended for five years, for firing a pistol under a table at Tasha's restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013.

The sentences would run concurrently.

Parole officers Annette Vergeer and Joel Maringa, testifying for the defence, had suggested three years of correctional supervision and 16 hours of community service a month for Pistorius.

On September 12 Masipa found Pistorius guilty of the culpable homicide of model and law graduate Steenkamp, but not guilty of her murder. Pistorius had claimed he thought there was a burglar in his toilet when he fired four shots through the locked door in the early hours of February 14 last year, killing Steenkamp.

Masipa found Pistorius guilty of discharging a firearm in public, when he shot from his friend Darren Fresco's Glock pistol under a table at Tasha's restaurant in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, in January 2013.

Pistorius was found not guilty on two firearms-related charges — illegal possession of ammunition, and shooting through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012.

Source : Sapa /th/aa/tk