Oscar Pistorius left jail Friday, free on bond eight days after the shooting death of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Magistrate Desmond Nair said the state had problems with its investigation and had not offered enough proof to keep Pistorius jailed.

"I come to the conclusion that the accused has made a case to be released on bail," Nair said, eliciting a celebratory cry of "Yes!" from the courtroom.

"We are relieved," said Pistorius' uncle, Arnold, speaking on behalf of the family.

Pistorius, who wept throughout much of Friday's hearing, remained quiet and reserved after the announcement and did not appear to celebrate. His family hugged quietly.

"As a family, we know Oscar's version of what happened that tragic night. And we know that that is the truth and that will prevail in the coming court cases," his uncle said.

Pistorius is accused of premeditated murder in the February 14 shooting death of Steenkamp, 29.

Prosecutors say Pistorius, 26, killed her after a heated argument in the early morning hours of Valentine's Day.

The sprinter says he thought an intruder was hiding in a toilet room inside the bathroom of his Pretoria home. He says he fired in a fit of terror before realizing Steenkamp was inside.

"I'd like to ask Oscar why he didn't lean over and touch my cousin first...and say 'are you okay?' 'keep quiet,' 'I'm coming now,'" said Kim Martin, Steenkamp's cousin.

While recounting a litany of "improbabilities" in Pistorius' account, Nair said defense attorneys had done enough to prove the "exceptional circumstances" required by South African law for the release of a suspect charged with premeditated murder.

He said the former chief investigator in the case, Hilton Botha, had made "several errors and concessions" in his testimony at the bail hearing, and said prosecutors had failed to prove that Pistorius was a flight risk or had a propensity toward violence.

Botha was replaced after prosecutors reinstated attempted murder charges against him in a 2011 incident unrelated to Pistorius.

Key arguments

During the four-day bail hearing, prosecutors argued that Pistorius had a history of violence and that his account didn't add up.

Prosecutors relied heavily on Botha's testimony, including statements from witnesses, who said they heard Pistorius and Steenkamp arguing before the shooting, as well as ballistic evidence that Botha said proved Pistorius was lying about how he had shot into the door.

But Botha seemed to buckle under questioning from defense attorney Barry Roux, who got the detective to acknowledge that the bullet evidence wasn't as conclusive as he had initially said and that at least one witness he had spoken to could not say for certain that the sounds he had heard came from Pistorius' house.

Nair also said that Botha had failed to exhaustively check cell phone records and chided the investigator for failing to check with Interpol before testifying that Pistorius owned a home in Italy -- raising his profile as a potential flight risk.

The source of the information about the house apparently was a magazine article, the judge noted.

Roux also said that defense investigators had found a bullet missed by police and that police may have contaminated the crime scene by failing to wear protective shoe covers. Police had run out of the covers, Botha testified.