Raw emotion came from Oscar Pistorius on the witness stand, when he broke down over a photo of his slain girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. INSIDE EDITION has the details.
Could his torrent of tears backfire?
That's what many are asking about Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius, on trial for murdering his girlfriend. Reeva Steenkamp.
Again and again, the Olympic sprinter has broken down in court. But no one expected the raw emotion as he returned to the stand Wednesday.
Today, Pistorius sobbed when he was shown a gruesome photo of Steenkamp taken right after he shot her.
Pistorius stated, "I have taken responsibility but I will not look at a picture where I am tormented by what I saw and felt that night. My fingers touched her head. I remember! I don't have to look at a picture! I was there!"
Some wonder if Pistorius's tears are counter productive. On the Today show, Cynthia McFadden said, "I think it's way too much crying. I have covered hudreds of criminal cases, I have never seen a defendant act like this."
HLN's Nancy Grace told INSIDE EDITION, "In court we have seen Pistorius going over the top with the tears and the snotting and they having to lie down and the vomiting. At a certain point, I really believe that dramatics are going to backfire on Oscar Pistorius."
Pistorius says he shot Steenkamp by accident after mistaking her for an intruder.
"Before I knew it I'd fired four shots at the door," he testified. "And I flung the door open, I threw it open, and I sat over Reeva and I cried. I don't know how long I was there for. She wasn't breathing. I had my hand on her hip. I was trying to stop the bleeding."
The case will be decided not by a jury but by the judge, addressed in court as "my lady."
The prosecutor, known as The Pit Bull for his aggressive style, tore into Pistorius's testimony.
Prosecutor: "You killed a person, that's what you did, isn't it?"
Pistorius: "I made a mistake, my lady."
Prosecutor: "You killed Reeva Steenkamp, that's what you did."
Pistorius: "I made a mistake, my lady."
Prosecutor: "You're repeating it three times, what was your mistake?"
Pistorius: "My mistake is that I took Reeva's life, my lady."
Prosecutor: "You killed her. You shot and killed her. Won't you take responsibility for that?"
Pistorius: "I did, my lady."
Prosecutor: "Say it then. Say yes, I killed, I shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp."
Pistorius: "I did, my lady."
Grace said, "Do I think he's being too tough? No, I don't. I know it comes across harshly to the civilian or the lay person observing in court. But let me remind everybody, this ain't no tea party. This is a murder trial."
The prosecutor played a video of Pistorius at a shooting range firing a shotgun and a pistol at a water melon, and making this comment: "It's a lot softer than brain but (blank) it's like a zombie stopper."
