Pistorius Guilty of Culpable Homicide

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA: Cleared of murder, Oscar Pistorius was on Friday found guilty of culpable homicide or negligent killing in the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Judge Thokozile Masipa said that the double-amputee athlete was not guilty of murder, as prosecutors had alleged. She ordered Pistorius to stand before she delivered the verdict.

The sentence for a culpable homicide conviction is at the judge's discretion, and it can range from a suspended sentence and a fine to up to 15 years in prison. Sentencing was to be announced at a later date. On the charge of murder, judge Masipa said, "the accused is found not guilty and is discharged, instead he is found guilty of culpable homicide."

The South African judge, presiding over his murder trial, on Friday resumed her lengthy explanation of her upcoming verdicts in the killing of his girlfriend.

Pistorius was also convicted on one of three unrelated firearm charges. The judge ruled that the athlete was guilty of unlawfully firing a gun in a public place when a friend's pistol he was handling discharged under a table in a restaurant in Johannesburg in early 2013, weeks before Steenkamp's killing.

Pistorius was acquitted on two other gun charges, including a count of firing a gun in public and a count of illegal possession of ammunition in the Pretoria home where he killed Steenkamp.

On Thursday, Masipa said there was not enough evidence to support a murder conviction for Pistorius' killing of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius fatally shot Steenkamp in his home on Feb. 14, 2013. He said he mistook her for an intruder, while the prosecution said he killed her intentionally after an argument.

AP