
A South African judge cited the "gross negligence" the Olympic runner showed when he shot Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home when she delivered the sentence. Pistorius' prison term begins immediately.
Pistorius
could be released after 10 months in jail to serve the remainder under house
arrest, according to legal experts.
Masipa
also sentenced Pistorius to three years in prison for unlawfully firing a gun
in a restaurant in a separate incident weeks before Steenkamp's 2013 shooting
death. She ordered that sentence to be wholly suspended for five years on
condition that Pistorius is not found guilty of another firearm offense.
Masipa delivered
her ruling after reviewing prosecution arguments for a tough sentence as well
as the defense case for a more lenient punishment for Pistorius. She said it
was a balancing act after defense lawyers had argued that Pistorius had already
suffered emotionally and financially after what he called an accidental
killing.
Masipa
last month convicted Pistorius of culpable homicide, but acquitted him of
murder after he testified he mistook Steenkamp for a nighttime intruder.
Na Mwanaharakati.
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