To many laymen and women out there, the guilt of Oscar Pistorius centred around his intentions when he fired that gun.

Did he think Reeva was still in bed, and he was shooting at an intruder, or did he know he was shooting through the door at his then girlfriend?

We all know what the end result of that long, drawn-out affair was, and now Oscar is behind bars and getting involved in fights over use of the phone.

There are some similarities between Oscar’s case and that of William Riley Gaul, a college football player who was on trial for the murder of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend, Emma Walker.

A verdict has now been handed down, and we’ll get to that later, but first some details from the Daily Beast.

Gaul, then 18 years old, complained to investigators that Walker had done some “cruel things” to him during their tumultuous break-up. But he never wanted to harm her—he couldn’t think of anyone who would…

These facts are no longer disputed: That around 3 a.m. on November 21, 2016, Gaul fired shots into Walker’s window from outside. Hours later, the high-school cheerleader was found dead by her mom with a gunshot wound to the head. She’d been killed in her sleep with a 9mm handgun, officials determined…

So we know he fired the gun, but it’s his motive, and state of mind at the time he did so, that decide his fate:

Each side has a vastly different explanation for what brought Gaul to Walker’s one-story home that night with his grandfather’s gun in hand. Prosecutors allege that Gaul, who was dressed in all black, was a “premeditated cold-hearted killer” who fired several rounds into Walker’s bedroom with the express purpose of killing her, an act of anger stemming from the dissolution of their rocky two-year relationship…

Gaul’s team argues that Walker’s [above] death was an accident, a foolish attempt to scare her in a bid to win back her affection that went terribly awry.

“Mr. Gaul committed the offense of reckless endangerment with the hope of coming to her rescue, of being her hero,” defense attorney Wesley Stone told jurors last week, 10 News reported.

Hey, guys, women don’t want to be rescued from gunfire as some kind of chivalrous act.

As for the veracity of Gaul’s claims, much like Oscar, he had a history of worrying behaviour. None more so than in the days before the murder:

On the Friday night before she was killed, Walker was celebrating a football win when she received a series of texts saying a loved one had been kidnapped…

Suspecting Gaul was behind the texts, she walked outside, her friends testified at trial.

“We see a figure laying down on the ground, facedown, like covering his face,” Zach Greene told jurors.

It was Gaul, who claimed he’d been “hit over the head” and couldn’t remember anything. He later told his own incredulous friends that he’d been kidnapped, too. No one believed him, they testified last week.

There are more examples of his worrying behaviour, like how he asked friends to help him dispose of the gun, but let’s skip ahead to the verdict handed down yesterday:

Jurors on Tuesday found William Riley Gaul [below] guilty of first-degree murder, theft, tampering with evidence, reckless endangerment, and felony murder after about four hours of deliberation.

Can I say he must be enjoying that prison food, or is it still fat-shaming even if they’re murderers?

Gaul was given a mandatory sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of parole for 51 years.

I guess he didn’t have Barry Roux on his side.

[source:dailybeast]