Oscar Pistorius sentenced to five years in prison

Oscar Pistorius sentenced to five years in prison

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius was sentenced Tuesday to a maximum of five years in prison for the Valentine's Day, 2013, killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The double-amputee Olympic runner was given a suspended, three-year sentence for an unrelated firearms charge.

Judge Thokozile Masipa delivered the ruling more than seven months after the Olympic runner's trial for killing Steenkamp started.

She earlier found him guilty of culpable homicide, which is comparable to manslaughter. He was acquitted of murder.

Pistorius testified during his murder trial that he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder.

It was not immediately clear if Pistorius would appeal the ruling.

Pistorius' brother and sister, Carl and Aimee, gave interviews to a South African television station on the eve of the sentencing, describing what they said was a difficult and emotional time in the more than a year-and-a-half since their brother killed Steenkamp.

"It has been a long journey to this point," Aimee Pistorius told eNCA. "A very taxing one. It is difficult to support someone through something like this — all the guilt and ridicule and obviously the exposure that has come with it."