Fla. woman's defense parallels Pistorius "intruder" shooting
ORLANDO, Fla. -- On July 27, 2011, a Florida woman named Caryn Kelley fearfully awoke from a deep sleep in the middle of the night to hear someone in her Orlando home.
Kelley, who lived alone, feared an intruder, possibly a man who lived nearby who she'd been having a disagreement with. Someone else in Kelley's position might have called 911 but Kelley had an option - her brother had given her a .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver for protection some years earlier. Kelley reached under her bed, took out the gun, cocked the hammer and aimed it at her bedroom door.
There was no stranger coming through the bedroom door - it was Kelley's boyfriend Phillip Peatross. The two had been arguing about their relationship earlier in the evening.
In dramatic cellphone video shot by an Orlando Police Officer, Kelley tells the police what happened next.
In short, Kelley told cops she did recognize Peatross but the two struggled for the gun and it went off, striking Peatross in the face. He died instantly.
But the police thought Kelley gave conflicting stories and did not believe her. She was arrested and initially charged with first degree murder although the charges were later reduced to manslaughter.
Sound familiar? It should, because Kelley's story is eerily similar - in some respects -- to the defense mounted in South Africa at the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee dubbed the "Blade Runner" because of the metallic artificial legs he uses to run.
He became a sensation at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Pistorius eventually was acquitted of murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He admitted shooting her through a bathroom door but claimed that he feared the person on the other side was a dangerous intruder.
Steenkamp was shot four times and died at the scene. Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide, akin to manslaughter in the U.S. He received a five-year sentence but reportedly will be released in August after 10 months in prison; he will then be placed on house arrest.
Prosecutors in South Africa are continuing to press murder charges against him at an appeals court.
WATCH: "48 Hours:" Oscar Pistorius: Shots in the Dark
Pistorius took the stand in his own defense, and that is precisely what Caryn Kelley's lawyer Diana Tennis suggested to Kelley. Tennis told CBS Correspondent Troy Roberts: "I feel the jury's gonna want to hear from her. This is such a hard decision and we worked on Caryn's testimony for a long time because she's so emotional and because it's so difficult for her to go back and relive this and I'm nervous. I'm worried about - emotionally, whether she'll be able to get through it and tell the story to the jury."
In the end, Caryn Kelley told Roberts she was too emotional "to get two words out." She did not testify at her trial in May 2013 but it did not matter - she was acquitted of manslaughter.
Paul LaRosa produced the "48 Hours" investigation into Peatross' death, "Wounded by Love," which aired Saturday on CBS.