PRETORIA, South Africa — An expert witness for the defense at the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius was supposed to help the athlete’s assertion that he killed his girlfriend by mistake last year, but he ended his testimony Thursday amid blistering attacks on his credibility by a prosecutor who accused him of slipshod analysis and fuzzy explanations.
Roger Dixon, a former forensic scientist for the South African police, was frequently on the defensive as he tried to fend off sharp questions from chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who says Pistorius is lying and fatally shot Reeva Steenkamp on purpose after a nighttime argument in his home.
On Thursday, Nel resumed his attack on Dixon, now a geologist at the University of Pretoria, after Dixon did not use Pistorius’ exact height when standing on his stumps. The prosecutor questioned why his measurements were 8 inches shorter in a test to see whether Pistorius’ head and body would have been high enough to be seen by a neighbor through a window of his bathroom.
Legal analysts say Judge Thokozile Masipa will review all the testimony, almost 2,000 pages so far, and that it can be misleading to assess the course of the trial by a single witness. Masipa adjourned the trial until May 5.
