The double amputee, who became a global celebrity for his campaign to be allowed to compete in mainstream sport, strenuously denies that he intended to kill Miss Steenkamp, claiming that he believed she was a burglar breaking in to his Pretoria home.
Over the weekend, it was reported that leaked ballistics tests conducted by police backed up his claim he not wearing his prosthetic legs when he shot girlfriend Miss Steenkamp, an FHM model, dead through a locked lavatory door.
In an earlier court hearing, Mr Pistorius said that he had woken in the middle of the night, heard a noise in the bathroom and immediately grabbed his gun to protect himself and his girlfriend, who was staying the night.
“I did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable,” he said in an affidavit. “I believed that when the intruder or intruders came out of the toilet we would be in grave danger.“ Prosecutor Gerrie Nel contended that Mr Pistorius took the time to strap on his prostheses, indicating the shooting had been a “clear case of premeditated murder”.
According to a report in the Sunday Times, ballistics evidence now backs up Mr Pistorius’s claim that he was on his stumps.
The paper quoted “a person with inside knowledge of the case” against Mr Pistorius as saying: “The defence will try to show that his actions were reasonable for a person with a disability.”
Another report, in the City Press newspaper, claims that Miss Steenkamp’s post-mortem examination report, also in the police dossier, reveals she was crouching behind the bathroom door when she was shot in the head, hip and arm.
The paper cites Hilton Botha, the former lead police investigator in the case, as saying that detectives believed forensic examination would back up their theory that Miss Steenkamp was hiding in the bathroom rather than using the lavatory.
Today's pretrial hearing at Pretoria Magistrate’s court is expected to hear that Mr Pistorius’s trial will begin at the capital city’s high court on March 3 and last until March 20.
A large contingent of Mr Pistorius' family were already in court early this morning – including his brother Carl, sister Aimee and uncle Ted. Also attending today's hearing were Miss Steenkamp's close friends Kim and Gina Myers and their mother Desi, with whom she lived in Johannesburg.
Meanwhile in Port Elizabeth, the seaside town where Miss Steenkamp grew up, her parents and close family will gather to celebrate what would have been her 30th birthday.
“We will be doing something casual, baking a cake for her, being together as a family,” Miss Steenkamp’s uncle Mike told The Daily Telegraph. “We certainly won’t be watching the trial. We will be thinking about her.”
He told the South African Times newspaper that the family had not yet decided whether they would attend Mr Pistorius' trial.
"All we can do now is pray. We are praying for answers and for justice," he said. "We want to know why this happened and the real truth ... we are tired of the speculation ... Hopefully, the next few months will finally bring us the justice we ultimately seek."
Desi Myers tweeted that she was sending “love, strength and prayers” to Miss Steenkamp’s parents.
“Six months ago our lives changed We became a different family with a different history, a different future,” she wrote. “We are blessed to have known you Reeves. Oh how your beautiful soul is missed.”
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