Gerrie Nel asks Charl Johnson if he is aware that his cell phone number was read out in court. Johnson said his phone "started ringing incessantly" during the morning session of court.
Judge Masipa has arrived, court is back in session.
We should be underway shortly. Charl Johnson, who lives near Oscar Pistorius, returns to the witness box. State advocate Gerrie Nel will continue direct examination.
15 minutes until court resumes for day three.
Court will be back tomorrow at 9:30 a.m local time.
Gerrie Nel requests that the court adjourn for the day. Judge Masipa grants his request. Day two is done.
When he learned that his version of events differed from what the investigation had already yielded, Charl Johnson decided he was "morally obligated" to get involved.
Johnson says that initially he didn't want to get involved with the investigation. He thought there would've been other people that were closer to Pistorius' house who could give their version of events. As it got closer to the bail hearing, he realized that no other witnesses had come forward.
Johnson called a developer he knew who was building a house in the Silver Woods neighborhood to see if he knew what had happened the night before. The developer told Mr. Johnson that he'd heard that Oscar Pistorius had shot his girlfriend.
Johnson says after they heard the shots, he and his wife tried to go back to sleep but was concerned for their own safety. He lay in bed trying to think of ways to add security to their house.
Johnson's testimony is very similar to Michelle Burger's testimony. He says he heard an increase in fear and anxiety in the woman's voice and that he heard screams during the gun shots. The screams stopped after the last gun shot. Johnson doesn't know how many shots he heard, he initially thought he heard 5 or 6.
In South Africa, most neighborhoods have private security companies that patrol the area.
Johnson says his wife handed him a phone that had already been dialed to call security. He didn't realize that he'd called the wrong security company. They accidentally called their previous security company from an old address but hadn't changed the number in her cell phone.
Johnson says he heard both a man and a woman yelling "help"
Johnson is now pointing out their house on an aerial map.
Johnson is very soft spoken, the judge has asked him to speak louder.
Johnson said that a woman's scream woke him up during the early hours of February 14. After the first screams he lifted his head from his pillow to make sure he heard correctly. When he heard the screams again, he ran to the balcony.
Johnson says February 13, 2013 was a normal evening for him and his wife. They went to bed between 9 and 10 p.m.
Court should be back in session shortly. Oscar Pistorius' neighbor and state witness Estelle van der Merwe will resume her testimony.
Witness: It sounded like "bang, bang." That's the best I can do.
Van der Merwe: I told Captain van Aardt that I heard four sounds but I do not know how to describe them. He told me they were four shots.
At about 3 a.m she heard a hard sound. There's a discrepancy over the translation of the Afrikaans word the witness used.
The witness is apparently very tense. Nel asks if he can have a minute to get her to relax. The judge instructs her to relax.
Van der Merwe was at home with her husband and child on February 13, 2013. She says she heard people fighting for about an hour. She couldn't hear what the people were saying and she didn't know what language they were speaking in.
Van der Merwe is going to testify in Afrikaans. It sounds like a different interpreter from yesterday. Van der Merwe is a neighbor of Oscar Pistorius. She says she's never met him and didn't know him.
Gerrie Nel now calls witness Estelle van der Merwe to the stand. She also doesn't want her face shown.
The judge has excused Mrs. Burger.
Gerrie Nel ends his questioning of Michelle Burger.
Michelle Burger breaks down in court when describing the screams of Reeva Steenkamp. Through her tears she says "it was awful to hear her screams."
Nel is asking Burger how she'd break down a door with a cricket bat, should she need to. Burger is explaining to the court how she'd do that. Nel is making the point that the gunshots Burger heard were in quick succession and that there wouldn't have been enough time to pull the cricket bat back and hit the door to match the quickness of the gun shots.
Mar. 5, 2014
