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1-800-403-7539. that's 1-800-403-7539. >> one time. >> that'll do it for me. thanks for watching. i'll be back next saturday and sunday at 6 p.m. eastern. follow us on instagram, tiktok and threads using the handle at weekend capehart and blue sky using at capehart, dot, msnbc.com and catch clips of the show on youtube. you can also show on youtube. you can also listen to every episode as karyn maughan: he is struggling a lot with what has happened. and he has to live with the weight of it. craig melvin: an in-depth look at the story that stunned the world, murder and the blade runner.

olympic runner oscar pistorius charged with the murder of his girlfriend. you realize that she's not coming back. and then it hits you. and then-- you can't deny that reeva was killed by himself at his house. what everybody will be watching for is whether you can prove he intended to kill her. absolutely. karyn maughan: you want to believe him. you really, really, really, really, want to believe him. hello, and welcome to "dateline." reeva steenkamp and oscar pistorius were a dazzling couple. she was a brilliant model. he was an athlete famous for defying the odds. their futures glowed with promise.

then reeva was gunned down. as police investigated, a chilling question transfixed the world. was her death an accident? or was south africa's national hero a murderer? here's keith morrison with "the rise and fall of oscar pistorius." keith morrison: such a time it was, like a different world looking back at this now. this was london. the year was 2012. and olympic history was about to be made. the moment was electrifying. in 45.44 seconds, a south african double amputee running on carbon fiber legs was transformed from global nobody to international superstar, with a superhero nickname, the blade runner. he was oscar pistorius.

he was just this amazing, amazing icon. keith morrison: and in south africa, he was adored, not just as a remarkable athlete, but as a man of apparently flawless character, modest good manners, and many good works, irresistible. of course what with endorsements and all, he was almost instantly wealthy and certainly a-list for a glorious eight months, and then-- [gunshots] --four bullets at close range through a closed door. a woman was dead. and the myth of the blade runner was blown away. it was 3:20 am on february 14, 2013, valentine's day. when police arrived at oscar's house, he told them a harrowing story. oscar pistorius, according to him, has suffered death threats, has been a victim

of serious and violent crime. keith morrison: the dark side of wealth and fame, he said, which is why he always kept a pistol handy. karyn maughan covered the story for south africa's 24-hour news channel, enca. he literally walked around with a loaded 9 millimeter gun with him at all times. keith morrison: that night, said oscar, the gun was in his bedside table, when he was suddenly startled awake. and hears a noise in the bathroom. he then gets what he describes as the sense of horror overcoming him. keith morrison: he grabbed his gun, he said, got out of bed, without putting on his prosthetic legs, and went looking for the source of the noise. on his stamps, walks over to the bathroom, screams at this person he believes to be an intruder, get out of my house, get out of my house, and then opens fire. keith morrison: right through the bathroom door. and then, he told the police, he went back to the bed, where he'd been sleeping with his new girlfriend,

a 29-year-old model and aspiring attorney named reeva steenkamp. that's when, oscar said, he made a horrible discovery. reeva wasn't in bed. and it immediately dawns on him that she could be the person in the bathroom. he puts on his prosthetic limbs and tries to break down the door. he then picks up a cricket bat, which he also kept in his room for protection against burglars or intruders or whatever, bashes down the door with the cricket bat. keith morrison: inside, he said he found reeva, bleeding. she's slumped over, but she's still alive. he picks her up in his arms, carries her downstairs. she's still breathing. keith morrison: she'd been struck by three bullets. and by the time the police arrived, she was dead. oscar sobbed as he told the story. he didn't mean to kill her. it was a horrible accident.

and to quote his words, he is mortified to have taken the life of a person so loved by so many people. keith morrison: detectives collected evidence, the bullet-riddled door, the cricket bat. they found security camera video showing reeva arriving at oscar's gated and walled subdivision at 6:00 pm, followed 10 minutes later by oscar. on the coffee table, they found a valentine's day gift and card from reeva to ozzy, as she liked to call him. it was all such a terrible, tragic mistake, said oscar. but two little details didn't seem quite right. they found reeva's cell phone in the bathroom. why would she take that in there, middle of the night? and more important, why was reeva dressed as if preparing to leave when she was shot? an accident? oh, no, thought detectives. this was no accident. double amputee olympic runner oscar pistorius

was charged overnight with the valentine's day murder of his girlfriend. [sirens wailing] keith morrison: it was like an explosion, a huge nationwide shock. oscar pistorius charged with murder? how was it possible? a true hero, their international star, in court like a common criminal, pleading to be released on bail. he walked into the dock, and he was shaking. his entire body was shaking. he was overcome, sobbing, struggling to breathe. and he seemed to be absolutely genuine, as far as you could tell. it did seem to be because it was over three days, i don't think it would be physically possible for a human being to fake that over that length of time. keith morrison: was he telling the truth? was reeva steenkamp the victim of a terrible accident and he of a miscarriage of justice? millions hoped so because if oscar was lying, their olympic hero must have been hiding

a very dark side, indeed. craig melvin: coming up, the oscar pistorius that the public did not see-- and oscar walked up to him and just started swearing at him and going off at him. craig melvin: --fights, threats, and the fast crowd, when "dateline" continues. if you take or have taken humira for moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis and still have symptoms... you don't have to settle. ask your gastroenterologist if switching to rinvoq is right for you. it's one of the latest treatments from the makers of humira. rinvoq works differently than humira and may help. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can deliver rapid symptom relief, lasting steroid-free remission, and helps visibly reduce damage of the intestinal lining. rinvoq can lower ability to fight infections. before treatment, test for tb and do bloodwork. serious infections, blood clots, some fatal; ...cancers, including lymphoma and skin; serious allergic reactions; gi tears; death; heart attack; and stroke occurred.

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as their blade runner sat in the dock, charged with murder. that reeva steenkamp, a young woman just beginning to make a name for herself for fighting against domestic abuse, had been killed by her boyfriend? no one could change that. but all around, a country still in love with its shining hero tried to hang on to belief that her death was a nightmarish accident, nothing more. this is a very conflicted narrative because you want to believe him. you really, really, really, really, want to believe him. keith morrison: it was a common desire. he must have thought he was firing at a burglar. the support has been overwhelming from all across the world. keith morrison: peet van zyl, oscar's manager, spoke to us two weeks after the shooting. it's not support just for oscar as the athlete. it's support for him having lost someone really dear

and close to him. keith morrison: but then, then the questions. could they believe him? really? who was he anyway? cheers. cheers. bottoms up. keith morrison: nbc's mary carillo was there with oscar when few beyond south africa even knew his name. is my face turning as green as his drink? nearly. keith morrison: he was religious. he was happy, apparently all the time. mary carillo: you've never had terrible days? not really. i mean, i think i've got to a point that i'm very happy. keith morrison: oscar was born without key bones in his feet and lower legs. his parents could have opted for years of reconstructive surgery, but instead, they decided to have oscar's lower legs amputated when he was 11 months old. it was a good decision in the end, said oscar. i believe certain things in my life have changed my personality in a positive way due to having a disability. keith morrison: as nbc cameras followed oscar around south

africa in the weeks leading up to the 2012 olympics, he seemed grounded, humble, salt of the earth. he had joined charities, this one dedicated to helping landmine victims. i've been very lucky to be involved in two projects in mozambique in the past, where we've been able to get funding to make them prosthetic legs. i really had exalted this guy. i really thought that he could-- he was a game changer. keith morrison: "new york times" reporter michael sokolove spent a couple of weeks with oscar back then. and he too was impressed. in oscar's home, there's almost an entire shelf of mandela biographies. and oscar reads them. he's a smart guy. he's a literate person. keith morrison: but just before those triumphant olympics, sokolove witnessed a disturbance in oscar's life. he broke up with his longtime girlfriend, samantha taylor.

here's a selfie oscar took of the two of them in happier times. olympics came first, he told samantha. he was too focused, too intent on this goal. and he didn't feel that it was something he could maintain and he broke it off with her. keith morrison: after the olympics, by then a world celebrity, oscar flew to the seychelles to tape an episode of the south african talk show called "top billing." oscar's companion on this september trip was samantha taylor, his old girlfriend, the one he broke up with before the olympics. it certainly looked here as if oscar had patched things up with her now. it makes my life a lot easier spending time with someone that's-- you're very caring, and-- you're both blushing. my face is the color of her dress. keith morrison: at home, of course, oscar was an item everywhere he went. when he ordered a brand new mclaren sports car, it was noticed, like everything

he did was noticed. oscar clearly enjoyed the attention and began to spend more time with new friends. the solid, stoic coaches who raised him, taught him humility, gave way to pals like billionaire financier quinton vanderberg, seen here in his reality tv show "clifton shores." and there was nightclub owner and ex-convict kenny kunene. i was a gangster. i was a gangster. people don't usually say that. look, if you are out of it, it's easy to say that. i guess. keith morrison: kunene loved oscar, loved showing him off to a whole new cast of characters, not all of whom necessarily had oscar's best interests at heart. is that world at all dangerous for a newbie to become involved in? i mean, are there sharks out there. yes. everywhere there are sharks. keith morrison: many, kunene said, behind the wheel of fast and fancy cars. in johannesburg, there's ferraris.

there's lamborghinis. there's porsches. there's the mclarens. there's the rolls-royces. yeah, johannesburg is very very flashy. the thing is oscar loved speed of all kinds, fast people, fast cars. and here at the local formula 1 racetrack, he met a fast crowd too, rent the whole place for their private races and their parties up there in the clubhouse. here oscar met the kind of people he might never have met, had he not been oscar pistorius. here he met the people who pulled a thread from the carefully woven fabric of his life, in particular, his new friend "clifton shores" producer quintin vandenberg. oscar allegedly accused quinton of having an affair with samantha taylor, during the olympics that is, after oscar first broke it off with samantha. and oscar walked up to him and just started swearing at him and going off at him. and [bleep] you [bleep] my girlfriend while i'm running for my country.

keith morrison: this is south african soccer star mark batchelor. he told us quentin denied ever dating samantha taylor. and he was so upset by oscar's outburst he asked batchelor to speak to him. so he was still shaken up. so he asked oscar, you know, asked me, could i find out what's going on. keith morrison: but, said batchelor, when he phoned oscar-- he said, oh, what's the problem? have you got a problem with me? and you know, i'm not scared of you, and i said, no, just boys talk. so i said to him, listen, oscar, you're a bit out of your league. but if you think, and he said, hey, [bleep],, i will break your [bleep] legs. so i actually just laughed it off. i didn't think anything of it. keith morrison: batchelor, by the way, had a checkered past himself. and so he said he knew the signs of a man losing his balance, hanging out with the wrong people. i know the crowd that they were all in with. and oscar got sucked in there. and you know, i just think it all became too much too quickly for him. keith morrison: there was a final breakup with samantha. friends said she complained oscar was not pleasant at all.

samantha's mother said she was afraid for her daughter's safety. but the public knew none of that. as far as his fans were concerned, oscar was on top of the world. and so when oscar pistorius walked the red carpet in november 2012 at the national sports awards show with this woman on his arm, the entire country wanted to know, who is she? craig melvin: coming up-- reeva had a brilliant mind. she was smart and funny and all those things. but she was brilliant. craig melvin: --oscar and reeva's new romance enter an old flame. , authorities wonder, could jealousy be a motive in this shooting, when "dateline" continues. gum problems could be the start of a domino effect parodontax active gum repair breath freshener clinically proven to help reverse the 4 signs of early gum disease a toothpaste from parodontax,

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but according to her friends, that is altogether the wrong word to describe reeva steenkamp. reeva's brief journey to her tragic end began with a last minute phone call from the most sought after celebrity in south africa. hi. i'm oscar's date tonight. he needed a date at the last minute, so it's like, reeva, just throw your stuff together and come and be my date. keith morrison: reeva was 29 when she lit up the red carpet with oscar at the south african sports awards ceremony in november 2012. reeva had looks, no question there. but according to her friends, that might have been the least of her attributes. reeva had a brilliant mind. she was smart and funny and all those things. but she was brilliant. keith morrison: gina myers was reeva's roommate, which may be understating their relationship. reeva actually lived with gina at her parents', did it to save money. but also being far from home, she missed her family.

and it was comforting to be part of somebody else's. she often told me how grateful she was for her upbringing. her family is a very down to earth. they're the salt of the earth. they're very humble. and reeva was exactly, exactly the same. keith morrison: reeva grew up tough on a small farm near the factory town of port elizabeth, tough enough to come back from a serious fall from a horse. she broke her back, spent eight months in a hospital, had to learn to walk all over again. she attended a devout and diverse catholic school, saint dominic's priory, where students are taught to be of service to the poor. by the time she entered the prelaw program at nelson mandela metropolitan university, reeva was primed to make a difference, to be part of the new south africa. but then a relationship with a man, her first serious boyfriend, turned abusive, frightening, destroyed her self-confidence. she had spoken about having a previously abusive relationship. keith morrison: after graduation, to break free,

reeva moved far away to the big city, johannesburg. she had an unbelievable personality. she had an unbelievable heart. keith morrison: warren lahood met reeva soon after she arrived in town. and the two quickly fell in love. we shared everything together. we did everything together. keith morrison: how long did he go out together? it was 4 and 1/2 years. keith morrison: during which reeva became determined to do something about the kind of domestic violence she'd experienced at the hands of that first boyfriend. and warren encouraged her, shared her outlook, her down home sensibilities. he was a normal, run-of-the-mill guy. keith morrison: in one of life's weird twists, mark batchelor knew reeva back then too when she was dating warren. she was in love. they were talking about when they were going to have the wedding. keith morrison: but before then, reeva wanted to live out a fantasy. she had dabbled in modeling as a teenager, decided to give it another try before going on to law school. she was looking for what was going to take her places.

keith morrison: reeva's career took off. she appeared in ads, tv commercials, videos, like this one for the men's magazine "fhm." did she get a big head? no, never. keith morrison: but by july of 2012, reeva broke the news to warren. she wanted for the first time in her life to be on her own. i mean, i was very busy. she was very busy. so i suppose you start growing apart. and sometimes you need a break. keith morrison: by then, reeva was speaking out publicly about domestic violence. she only knew oscar the way everybody knew oscar, as the electrifying blade runner in the olympic games. and then pure coincidence, really, four months later, the car dealer from whom oscar ordered that mclaren showed him a picture of reeva, suggested he might want to take her to the sports awards. it was like they were made for each other, both disciplined, hardworking, well-read, hoping to put

their fame to use for the betterment of others, oscar for landmine victims and reeva for victims of domestic violence. did you ever meet oscar? i did, yes. i mean, he seemed like a gentleman. keith morrison: and like a gentleman, warren graciously accepted his role as reeva's ex. and as an ex-boyfriend, warren would occasionally meet reeva at a cafe to talk about old times. one of those passing encounters, though, will forever be replayed in warren lahood's mind. what did she tell you she was up to? she told me how well she was doing. and she seemed like she was happy. keith morrison: perfectly innocent, said warren. but did oscar think so? mark batchelor had seen, he said, how jealous oscar could be about his former girlfriend, samantha. he told us reeva's friends believed oscar now felt the same way about her. it was talk about him trying to see if she was

contacting her ex, warren. keith morrison: was oscar jealous of warren? we don't know. but we do know this. that little coffee date warren had with reeva, it was on february 12, 2013, 36 hours before oscar killed her. craig melvin: coming up, prosecutors lay out the case, iphones, bullet holes, reeva's clothes, neighbors' stories-- what everybody will be watching for is whether or not you can prove he intended to kill her. absolutely. we would not have charged him if we didn't believe so. craig melvin: --when "dateline" continues. refreshed. >> for a more productive day. get 24 hour continuous relief that does not fade. that does not fade. >> the

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>> whole body. deodorant to try. start controlling your body odor better everywhere. >> hi. >> i'm. >> richard lui with. >> a. >> news update. >> at least eight. >> are dead. >> after rains and. >> devastating flooding swept. through kentucky this weekend. the severe winter weather is expected to continue in the southeast of united states as

the week starts, and the first set of talks expected to be held this week over ending the war between russia and ukraine. it comes after president trump held his own call with russia's president, ukraine's president, saying. to nbc he cannot accept any peace. deal made without any peace. deal made without him. for now, back to dateline. welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. reeva steenkamp and oscar pistorius were an a-list item. but just months into their relationship, rumors of oscar's jealousy were causing a stir. then, on valentine's day, the romance ended in a blast of gunfire. now, the man who pulled the trigger was headed to court with the world watching. here's keith morrison with "the rise and fall of oscar pistorius." keith morrison: four shots through a door, no question oscar pistorius fired them and that he killed reeva steenkamp.

but was it murder? police and prosecutors thought it was from the very first night. as the trial began, everyone was wondering how the state was going to prove the killing of reeva was premeditated, that oscar actually meant to kill her. i think the state has put a huge amount of work and a huge amount of money and a huge amount of effort into making their case. keith morrison: a case, that the prosecution argued, was just as simple as it looked on day one. you can't deny that reeva was killed by himself at his house and that four shots were fired at her. keith morrison: attorney nathi mncube worked for south africa's national prosecuting authority. he previewed, cautiously, the prosecution's case against oscar. what everybody will be watching for is whether or not you can prove he intended to kill her? absolutely. and you sound like you're pretty confident the prosecution has enough to be able to prove that. we would not have charged him if we didn't believe so.

he knew that reeva was in the bathroom and he intended to kill her. keith morrison: reeva was dressed when she was shot as if she intended to leave. she'd taken her cell phone with her when she locked herself into the bathroom, said medupe simasiku, then a spokesperson for south africa's prosecution authority. we believe that reeva was probably running away and she locked herself in the bathroom. what's the prosecution's theory about the fact that she was wearing white shorts and a black top? it cannot be explained as of now, until such time, the accused can actually take up a stand and say she decided to put on clothes to go to the bathroom or she decided to say, i'm going to slip on clothes. i'm not going to put my nighties on. keith morrison: tipsters told investigators in the months before the reeva shooting, oscar had recklessly fired his pistol twice before, once through the sunroof of his car while driving, another time

while having lunch at this crowded upmarket cafe. he accidentally shoots it. he then asks his friend to take the fall for him, saying that, you know, i'm a well known person. the media will be all over this. you say you shot the gun. help me out. the state is arguing is that he's never taken responsibility for anything, ever. everyone keeps making excuses for him. and now, a woman is dead. keith morrison: weirdly, this happened at the very same restaurant where reeva met with her ex-boyfriend warren a day and a half before oscar shot her to death. in addition to murder, prosecutors added those firearm charges, nickel and dime stuff, you might say. but the prosecutors had their reasons. and what they essentially are is part of a strategy by the npa to present oscar pistorius as a trigger-happy cowboy who reached for his firearm in moments of stress. keith morrison: like the time when

four months before reeva's shooting, oscar tweeted about going into full combat recon mode when he heard a noise in the laundry room. what's interesting in that account is what oscar did not do. he did not fire four shots through the door. [gunshots] so what about the time he actually did fire his pistol during that awful night he took reeva's life? we made a replica of oscar's bathroom door, thick solid wood. on a target range, we fired the same type of 9 millimeter round from the same type of pistol oscar used. bullets ripped right through the door as if it was nothing more than gossamer. we also learned there's something unique about this 9 millimeter. it's not only powerful, but exceptionally loud, so much so, it's impossible to convey without blowing out your speakers, 160 decibles, louder than a jet engine at takeoff makes your ears ring according to prosecution

spokesman nathi mncube, many of oscar's neighbors heard those gunshots and something possibly more damning, screams. and it's not just, by the way, the screams. it's whether did people actually hear arguments prior to that? you know, did you hear a woman shouting, sounding irritated and annoyed and angry, a man screaming, shouting, and so on? keith morrison: the prosecution named more than a dozen neighbors as potential witnesses. five of them, according to the pretrial report, said they heard arguing and shots, followed by the screams of a woman, and then further shots. and if people said we had gunshot, scream, gunshot, scream, it's going to be pretty much hard for you to argue that you still didn't know that the person was screaming was your girlfriend. keith morrison: how would oscar ever be able to explain that away in court?

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times greater than in the us. everybody knows about gated communities, of course. but this one is called a security village. in there somewhere is oscar's house, behind the high wall and the 220-volt wire that's strung up across the top, which would give you a heck of a shock if you touched it. but on this side of the wall, in case you're an intruder thinking of coming inside, is a place called the farm inn. it's a wild animal place. and you're apt to run into a cheetah or a lion if you're an intruder. in south africa, there's no safe place because if criminals target you and they want you in your house, they will get you in your house. keith morrison: oscar's acquaintance, kenny kunene, is both a man of wealth and a robbery victim. a lot of people have been robbed of money in their houses. you kind of buy oscar's story, then, that he thought there was an intruder in the bathroom? yes. it makes sense to you? it makes so much sense.

keith morrison: oscar's attorneys said crime reporter karyn maughan could argue oscar had been fearful his entire life and for good reason. i think there is an awareness from his defense team that they cannot present oscar pistorius as this perfect human being who was so idolized by so many people. there has to be an acknowledgment, a real acknowledgment, of the kind of issues that he's had that have always been brimming under the surface. keith morrison: in fact, karyn maughan said she learned oscar planned to ask the court to hold him to a different standard of justice. that he can't be judged according to the standards of the reasonable man. keith morrison: south africa's self-defense law is based on how a reasonable man would react to an attack. but maughan said oscar's defense team would portray him as something other than that. you need to take into account that this is a person who has persistently said that he felt the most vulnerable

on his stamps and was living, essentially, in a state of fear and a state of terror. and you need to judge him by that standard. keith morrison: oscar pistorius fought for years to get into the olympics, to be treated like everybody else there. but now, he was expected to make the opposite argument in court, that he was different, a double amputee who lived in constant fear of the dark. oscar didn't sleep well. oscar didn't sit still. he was restless all the time. keith morrison: journalist michael sokolove, while working on his "new york times sunday magazine" cover story said he observed that in private, oscar was often afraid. he seemed to have a great deal of fear, reasonable or not, of people breaking into his house. one day when i was with him, we came back to the house, and he said, by the way, there was a noise in the house last night. and i thought it was an intruder. and i came downstairs with my gun.

keith morrison: armed and afraid, a dangerous combination. the account oscar gave the night he shot reeva steenkamp seemed very telling, that his portrayal of himself was a far cry from the heroic blade runner. entered my house. i was too scared to switch a light on. i grabbed my nine millimeter grabbed my nine millimeter pistol from underneath my too scared to switch on a light, but not too scared to pull the trigger on a pistol. as this footage from sky news video reveals, oscar was very comfortable with a gun in his hands and knew quite well the damage they could do. which oscar pistorius would the judge see? craig melvin: coming up--

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>> on the skin. >> it works like a dream. why didn't. didn't. >> someone think welcome back. more than a year had passed since oscar pistorius fired four bullets through a bathroom door,

killing reeva steenkamp. now, the beloved olympic athlete was about to have his day in court, and the world would be watching. the scene promised to be a spectacle, but one with very real consequences. here's keith morrison with the conclusion of "the rise and fall of oscar pistorius." keith morrison: the trial of oscar pistorius in the spring of 2014 was an international event streamed live to the world. do you understand the charges, mr. pistorius? i do. i do, my lady. how do you plead? not guilty, my lady. keith morrison: it was all so dramatic. there were the neighbors, five of them, who testified off camera they heard the gunshots when reeva was killed, but not just gunshots. they heard reeva, terrified. keith morrison: the neighbor's husband

gave an identical account. escalated, keith morrison: oscar's next door neighbor testified she heard a loud argument more than an hour before the shooting. people were talking in loud keith morrison: which went through the door behind which reeva was cowering, said the prosecutor. he brought the door to the court, bullet holes and all. and then the state's ballistics expert described how, shot by shot, through that door, oscar took reeva's life. now, came to the conclusion that most probably the wound

on the hip was when she was in a standing position between the door and the toilet seat. keith morrison: that shot shattered reeva's hip. she fell back onto a magazine stand, put her hands up in a futile attempt to protect herself, as a second round passed through her upper right arm. a third shot missed. but the fourth one struck reeva in the head. if we look at the defensive position, it's like if you see its position, the wound on the left hand, just between the two fingers, bullet perforated here. and she was a bit facing down. it comes in here. it also penetrates the head of the deceased. keith morrison: pistorius responded to this testimony by covering his head, plugging his ears, and vomiting into a trash can. prosecutors made the case that oscar was a man governed by his emotions, not just grief

and guilt, as seen in court, but also jealousy and rage. to make that case, the state submitted a string of text messages sent three weeks before the shooting, reeva to oscar. keith morrison: oscar responded. keith morrison: then, with six days to live, here was reeva again to oscar. keith morrison: but oscar's lawyer said the texts were nothing more than a lovers' spat. so what really happened that night? well, only one person survived. and he, oscar pistorius himself,

took the stand off camera to tell the world his version. bathroom. >> i thought that there was a. >> burglar that was gaining entry into my home. the first thing that ran through my mind was that i needed to arm myself. that i needed to protect reeva and i. that i needed to get my gun. and then i heard a noise from. >> inside the toilet. >> but i perceived to be somebody coming out of the toilet. before i knew it, i had fired four shots at the door. >> my ears were ringing. >> i couldn't hear anything. so i started. i kept on shouting for either to phone the police. then i unlocked the door and i then i unlocked the door and i flung the door open. i thr keith morrison: south africa does not have a jury system, so oscar's testimony was for an audience of one.

the judge would determine oscar's guilt or innocence. and five months later, when judgment day finally arrived-- mr. pistorius, please stand up. keith morrison: --the judge made it clear she believed oscar. shooting the deceased dead was a genuine mistake, as he thought he was shooting at an intruder behind the toilet door. the accused is found not guilty and is discharged. keith morrison: not guilty of murder, but the judge did find oscar guilty of a lesser charge, culpable homicide, in us terms, manslaughter. reeva's parents, june and barry steenkamp, were devastated. i wanted the truth. i don't think we got the truth. that's the whole point. we did not get the truth. that's not what i believe or barry believes happened.

that's not justice. and that's not justice. keith morrison: for them, the news only got worse. the sentence was much more lenient than expected, five years. and then just a year into the sentence, this happened. there's late news tonight from south africa. nbc news has learned one-time olympic hero oscar pistorius has been released from prison. keith morrison: oscar was allowed to move into his uncle's compound to serve out the rest of his sentence. it was a strange ending to a strange story, except that wasn't the end of the story. in south africa, the rules are a little different. prosecutors can appeal verdicts, which they did. and after the trial, after oscar was sent home, a higher court upgraded his conviction. the accused conviction and sentence on count one are set aside and replaced with the following, guilty of murder.

keith morrison: then later, the court increased oscar's sentence too, to 13 years and five months. and so back he went to prison. but that wasn't the final chapter either. we are following breaking news overnight in a case we've followed for more than a decade. keith morrison: in january 2024, nearly 11 years after murdering reeva steenkamp, oscar pistorius was released on parole. as required under south african law, he had served more than half his sentence behind bars. he'll serve the remainder of his time at his uncle's compound in pretoria under strict supervision. the former olympian's release came four months after the death of reeva's father, barry, who spent years working to keep his daughter's killer behind bars. in a statement, reeva's mother, june, said, "there can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back. we who remain behind are the ones serving a life sentence."

there is a postscript to this story. and it has to do with mark batchelor, that one-time soccer legend. what's that like to have a huge crowd of 100,000 people, and they're all cheering your name? sometimes they're booing your name as well. keith morrison: on the evening of july 14, 2019, as he sat in his car in front of the home where we had met him, two gunmen, unknown, fired into mark batchelor's car. police are investigating a case of murder. keith morrison: his murder was national news. the south african broadcasting company was all over it. a targeted hit, the police called it. there were rumors that batchelor had got mixed up with a fast crowd, out to settle an old score, which got us to thinking about the time this sports god told us how, like oscar, he struggled to stay grounded, as his own fame and money soared.

it was just getting too fake and too much about who's got more money or who's got more better cars and who can do this and who can't do that. and i pulled away from it. keith morrison: there's an eternal truth to the ancient myth about flying too close to the sun, whether a once celebrated footballer or shining star of the london olympics, who flew on his flashing blades and fell so fast and so far. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin, and this the christmas choir banquet.os she was dressed up to the nines. man: this young girl catches his eye. she caught everyone's eye. doug larison: she didn't come home that night. there was blood everywhere.