Home alarm system of the 'Blade Runner' plays role in his murder trial

I've written here before about former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, who is charged with killing his friend Odin Lloyd, apparently failing to realize his home security camera was recording him with a gun both hours before—and minutes after—Lloyd was shot to death last summer. Now a home security system could be a key piece of evidence in the murder case against another sports star, the “Blade Runner.”

The security system in the home of Oscar Pistorius, the South African double-amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, came under scrutiny in his trial in Pretoria, South Africa in early April, news reports say.

Pistorius, 27, known as the "Blade Runner" for the high-tech artificial legs he uses, was being grilled by prosecutor Gerrie Nel when, according to Alliance News, “Nel went into details about whether the alarm system at Pistorius' home was in order and whether he had turned it off.”

“A functioning alarm would contribute to discrediting Pistorius' claim he mistook his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp for a burglar when he shot her dead through the bathroom door in February last year,” Alliance News said. “Pistorius said several times he was unable to remember all the details and complained he was tired.”

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that Pistorius “acknowledged that he must have deactivated the house's alarm system when he carried the injured Ms. Steenkamp down his stairs after the shooting, although he said he doesn't remember it.”

And the Globe and Mail reported: “Nel said the alarm system was functioning and should have alerted him to any intruder. Mr. Pistorius said his external motion-detectors were sometimes removed when the house was painted, and ladders were sometimes left in the garden that could have been used to enter his bathroom window, but he admitted that he hadn't checked on either on the day before the shooting.”

Pistorius, who lost his legs below the knee because of a congenital abnormality, was the first double-leg amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes in the 2012 London Olympics.

His trial began in March and is expected to continue into May.