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Breaking news: In its August 9th report the Florence Court again explains why Knox is guilty of unprovoked calunnia against Patrick - and left him in prison for several weeks. Very hard line, hits back against the Supreme Court's overruling of Florence in 2015. We hope to have it up in English by month's end. So Knox's deeply dishonest smear of the investigators in court in June had zero effect.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
The Steel Stairs That Suspiciously Clanged On The Night ADD SHOT
Posted by Peter Quennell
Neighbor and witness Nara Capezzali has testified that she heard feet running across the top deck of the parking facility and up some steel stairs.
Despite some truly absurd claims to the contrary we believe every word of this testimony.
Click here for a series of images of the route Ak and RS appear to have followed.
The top of the parking facility at night is well, deathly quiet. You can hear anything that moves. And those steel stairs are so noisy, you would think they had been designed as a giant musical instrument.
Because of something the witness in the park said, we think it was TWO sets of feet: Knox’s and Sollecito’s. What the witness in the park said was that Knox and Sollecito approached the park from the street ABOVE the park.
And also, two witnesses have confirmed that it was Rudy Guede who ran up the stone steps alone, and bumped into one of them.
Across the deck, up the steel stairs, through the arch, up the street, past the gelateria, and down a few of the stone steps to the park.
About a half of a kilometer or a quarter of a mile in total.
By the way, from the point by the arch up the street and down the stone steps, this is the route that MEREDITH also followed that evening, not long before, on her final way home from the English girls’ place.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
What Could Well Have Happened On The Night: Killers Attack Meredith 10.13-10.30 PM
Posted by Brian S
[click for larger image]
[above: the main piazza in the old city, about the time in question]
1. Deep Dive Into Micheli Report
Five months to the day today since Judge Micheli handed Guede his 30 years and Knox and Sollecito their go-straight-to-trial cards.
And about two months since Judge Micheli released his 106-page report with a scenario of what most probably happened on the night.
He seemed in no doubt whatever that Meredith had been attacked by three people, and that there had been a major attempt to rearrange the crime scene soon after.
Now we have the benefit of the testimony of a number of witnesses which Judge Micheli did not get to hear, because of the short-form trial, but which he would have got to read, because their statements are in the 10,000-plus pages of evidence prepared by the prosecution.
Here is one possible scenario which takes into account what has been reported from court in the period of the past few weeks.
1. Probable Timing Of The Attack
Meredith’s aborted phone calls, possibly for help, were reported to have happened just after 10pm.
Sometime just after 10:30pm a car containing four visitors from Rome broke down outside the driveway and gate to Meredith’s house on Via della Pergola. A dark colored car was noticed in the driveway.
The driver of the car called the breakdown truck at about 10:40pm, and the mechanic arrived 15 or 20 minutes later. He said he was not there long, and the five people involved were perhaps on their way by around 11:15pm.
This seems to prove that Meredith was not murdered in the period between sometime just after 10:30 and 11:15pm
Someone running up the stone steps above the intersection bumped into witness Ms Formica’s boyfriend around 10:30pm. Ms Formica didn’t hear any scream. Shortly after that she saw the car that had broken down.
The car occupants did not hear any scream, or see anyone run away (it is known they were traced and questioned). Rudy Guede himself has claimed “he ran from the house around 10:30pm, not many minutes after the killers had fled”.
It seems witness Nara Capezzali, the neighbor up above, was not too confident of the time she heard the scream and the running feet. Perhaps her diuretic had its effect sometime just before 10:30pm.
She and other witnesses heard a very long, loud, terrified scream. Less than a minute later 2 or 3 people were heard running away in different directions.
The scenario this suggests is that Meredith was struggling with her attackers from around the time of her aborted call at 10:13pm until sometime just before 10:30pm.
2. Probable Blow By Blow Of Attack
The report suggests someone had a hand over Meredith’s mouth, people were holding her arms, and she was struggling as the assault took place. She was being verbally threatened and she was being stabbed with a knife.
Suddenly, Meredith got her mouth free, and she let out that “blood curdling” scream that Ms Capezzali described. It seems unlikely that the final stab had been made to her throat before that moment, else she wouldn’t have obtained the volume to be heard by those in the surrounding houses.
However, it may have been this scream which caused the killer to silence her with the final thrust of the knife. Her attackers would expect that that cry would have been heard by anyone up on the street or in the parking facility or the houses above who was still up and about at that time of night.
They stabbed Meredith, and then they ran.
3. Probable Events After The Attack
Shortly after they disappear from the cottage, a car breaks down just outside. The driver calls for help just around the time that Meredith breathes her last.
Any of the killers who may want to return to the cottage will have to wait until that broken down car has gone. The dark car remains trapped in the driveway.
Meanwhile, up in Piazza Grimana, Antonio Curatolo sits reading his paper. He sees Sollecito and Knox come into the square, apparently from the direction of Via Pinturicchio above the park.
It’s not the first time he has seen them that night. He first saw them at around 9:30.
It’s now after 10:30pm. He observes them go over to the railings several time and look down towards the cottage at Via Della Pergola.
What do they see?
A broken down car right is sitting outside the cottage gates which was soon to be attended by a breakdown truck. The mechanic stated that the car was located just before the parking lot entrance, so he had a clear view of the entrance to the house as he worked practically across the street from the gate.
No-one could get back to the cottage or retrieve their car from the driveway until after 11:15pm, by which time the broken down car had been fixed and the people involved had gone from the scene.
Sollecito and Knox may have left the park around 11:00 to 11:30 pm. Mr Curatolo then went to the railings himself to see what they’d been looking at.
Next, he said he saw Sollecito and Knox return, and he put the time of this at just before midnight for sur
e. After midnight, he left the piazza to go to the park and sleep.
2. Pivotal Importance Of What Curatolo Saw
Antonio Curatolo is a very dangerous witness for Sollecito and Knox. He seems to be as sharp as they come.
Mr Curatolo knew both Knox and Sollecito by sight from watching them come and go through the piazza over the preceding weeks, though this was “the first time he had seen them together… like a couple’”.
He fixes his exact memory of the night for his evidence to the police presence and news of the murder the following day. Unlike Knox and Sollecito, he can remember exactly what happened on the night of 1st November.
He knows where he was. And he knows who and what he saw from his front-row park bench.
The suggestion here for the moment, then, is that Meredith really was struggling with her attackers from around the time of her aborted call at 10:13pm until sometime just before 10:30pm.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Locations That Various Witnesses Have Been Talking About EDIT ADD SHOTS
Posted by Peter Quennell
Click above for the full series, all shot within 300 meters of Meredith’s house.
Four witnesses on Friday, three on Saturday, and several previously have testified that they saw things in these areas.
This shot above is where Sollecito and Knox may have been seen sitting on a low wall on the night. Near the railing there is a good view down to the gate of the house.
As with all our shots on TJMK, these will expand when you click on them.
Trial: ABC’s Ann Wise On The Man In The Square And The Man In The Car
Posted by Peter Quennell
Most Telling Of Five Witnesses Today
1) Mr Curatolo: the eyewitness in the square
Antonion Curatolo, 53, who testified that he spends most of his time in a Perugia, Italy square near the cottage where Knox and Kercher lived, placed the young couple near the murder scene on Nov. 1, 2007… Curatolo’s testimony contradicted Knox and Sollecito’s contention that they were at Sollecito’s home that night…
On the night before Kercher’s body was discovered, he said, he was sitting on a bench in Piazza Grimana, reading a news magazine and smoking cigarettes. The plaza was busy with young people, he said, but he noticed one couple, whom he identified in court as Knox and Sollecito, talking animatedly. At one point Sollecito went to a railing at the edge of the square and looked down in the direction of the house where Kercher was killed, Curatolo said.
2) Mr Kokomani: the eyewitness in the car
Driving past Knox’s cottage on either the night of the murder or the night before, Kokomani said, he noticed what looked like a large garbage bag in the middle of the road. He tried to brake, he said, but skidded on the wet road and bumped into the bag. At that point he realized that it was not a bag, but two people, whom he identified in court as Knox and Sollecito.
Sollecito approached his car in a threatening manner, he said, and he punched Sollecito. Knox then pulled a large knife out of her green handbag and brandished it at him, holding it with two hands, he said. “I grabbed some olives that were in my car, and threw them at her,” said Kokomani. “And I also threw a Nokia cell phone at her.”
At that point he saw Rudy Guede, Kokomani said, whom he had met before. When he asked Guede what the two young people were doing with the knives, “He told me they were having a party, and the knife was for the cake,” Kokomani testified.
According to Kokomani, Guede offered him $400 to borrow his car the next day. Then he said he saw Sollecito in his rear-view mirror approaching the car with a knife. Kokomani said that at that point he drove away….Ghirga, Knox lawyers, called Kokomani’s testimony was “an example of catastrophic testimony.”
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Trial: Report From The Courtroom On Testimony Of 4 Key Witnesses
Posted by stewarthome2000
1. Summaries Of The Witnesses
On Saturday the court heard from Antonio Curatolo, Fabrizio Giofreddi, Antonio Aiello, and Hekuran Kokomani, and Sollecito made another statement.
1) Antonio Curatolo (above)
Curatolo is a fixture in Perugia. He is a colorful vagrant that spends most of his time hanging around Corso Garibaldi (the street where Sollecito lived) and Piazza Grimana (the piazza in front of the School for Foreigners within eyeshot of the gate of Meredith’s house on Via della Pergola).
The crowd murmured as he was helped in by court assistants, uncleaned and dressed in an old jacket and winter knit hat. His skin was dark against his long un-groomed white hair, beard and mustache. But once he opened his mouth, you knew that this guy was no slouch. He spoke clearly, concisely and directly, and was very certain of what he saw.
His testimony never swayed and was consistent even under cross examination. In short, his appearance was one thing, his articulate convincing testimony was another.
He stated that he has been a regular hobo (for lack of a better term) around that part of Perugia for about 8-9 years. He testified that he was in Piazza Grimani around 9:30-10:00pm when he saw across the piazza two people, a man and a woman. He described them as a couple from the way they were sitting next to one another.
He was asked to describe them and he turned and looked at Amanda, just a few feet away, and said calmly, “it was her”, and then looked at Sollecito and said “and him.” He stated that having been in that area he had seen them before separately, but this was the first time he saw them together. But he was certain it was them.
He said also that, although he did not watch them all the time, he did see them again “poco prima di mezzanotte” or “just before midnight” at the same place. He originally said that they were there from 9:30 through midnight, but clarified that they were there at 9:30-10:00pm and may have left around 11-11:30 and then returned to be there just before midnight.
After midnight, he left the piazza to go to the park and sleep.
The next day, he arrived at his faithful piazza around 12:00pm, and eventually, around 1:30 or so, he saw the carabinieri pass by, and the police and crime scene staff, and stated that he watched them at the scene, including the CSI people dressed in the full-white suits.
Under cross-examination, Sollecito’s lawyer Ms Buongiorno may have thought she had an easy target. But in fact he held up extremely well. She asked, “how could you possibly know it was 9:30?” and he responded “Because the sign next to the piazza has a digital clock. I look at it often to check the time”.
He stated that “when I sat on the bench to read I looked at my watch and it was just before 9:30pm”¦.and I saw them shortly afterwards.” He said he knows what he saw, and he saw those two! No more questions.
2) Fabrizio Giofreddi
He was also a pretty good witness, confident and unwavering in his testimony. He stated that on October 30th he parked his car right at the junction where Via Della Pergola begins and the street leads up to the piazza Grimana, which he described as being across from the pub “contropunto”.
He was sure of the date because when he was leaving he scratched the car next to him and left a note for the driver of the other car and wrote down the information (license plate etc.) and the date and time. He said that he arrived and parked around 5:00pm and saw four people coming from the driveway of the house walking on to the road.
He said that he saw Amanda, Raffaele, Meredith, and a black man which he believes was Rudy as he had seen him before, but could not be 100% sure. He did say he was 99% sure, but could not say “cento per cento” or “without any doubt”. He stated that he noted them so well he could even state what they were wearing.
He said that Meredith had jeans and a dark coat and high heels, Amanda had a red coat with large buttons (which he described as 60’s style) and jeans, and Raf had on a long dark jacket and dark pants. He stated that because the black person was behind the rest, he saw his face but did not see well what he was wearing. He then locked his car and went on his way. He pointed to both Knox and Sollecito in the courtroom and stated it was “him and her”.
(Note: oddly, he said he had seen Rudy before, giving out flyers in front of the University, but few have seen Rudy do that while many have seen Patrick do that many times)
Under cross-examination, he was also asked as with other witnesses “why did it take so long for you to come and tell police this information?” He stated that he was not following the homicide, and had no idea his testimony had any bearing on the case.
He told his Spanish professor, who was following the case religiously, what he had seen. and she told him to go and talk to the police immediately, which he did, albeit nearly a year later.
3) Raffaele Sollecito
There was a break and upon everyones’ return, Sollecito made a spontaneous statement. He addressed the court and stated that it was impossible that Giofreddi had seen him with Rudy Guede that evening.
He had never met Rudy Guede, let alone spent any time with him. He also stated that he has never seen Amanda wear a red jacket ever. Grazie. His statement was short and to the point.
4) Antonio Aiello
He is a lawyer and close friend of Hekuran Kokomani and was testifying as a character witness for Mr Kokomani. He explained the he has known Mr Kokomani for many years and although he is in jail right now for beating his girlfriend, he is really a “decent person”. Mr Aiello came to testify on his behalf about the circumstances which led to Mr Kokomani’s desire to talk to the police and his original testimony.
He said that shortly after the murder, around the middle of November, Mr Kokomani contacted him and said the he wanted to talk before he left for Albania. Mr Aiello was very busy at the time and said that if it was urgent, he would address the issue now, else he asked Mr Kokomani if it could wait till his return from Albania in January. Mr Kokomani agreed it could wait.
Upon his return, in January, Mr Kokomani told Mr Aiello everything that he observed that night, which as it turns out was most likely October 31st as we will later see based on Mr Kokomani’s testimony. Mr Kokomani went to Mr Aiello first because he is an attorney and close friend, and Mr Kokomani did not want to have any problems and asked Mr Aiello’s advice and if he would go with him to the “questura” (police station) to make his statement. Mr Aiello naturally agreed.
In trying to explain what Mr Kokomani recounted, Mr Aiello stated that even he had difficulty understanding Mr Kokomani as to what actually happened that night.
5) Hekuran Kokomani
Note: This is the one witness where I must add some personal commentary to his testimony. It has to be placed in the context in which it was given. Mr Kokomani stated he was born in Albania in 1969 and has been in Italy for 15-16 years. Even having lived in Italy for so long, he needed an interpreter, especially during the difficult questions of cross examination.
I will say right from the start that I really don’t know what to think of Mr Kokomani’s testimony. It was all over the place, contradictory, and if I use the word jumbled, I am being kind. It seems it was a combination of his inability to understand the question and his eagerness to make rushed statements that later diverged from things he said just minutes before. It was painful to get through his testimony, but also entertaining. Something tells me he tried his best.
In the end, after quite a few laughs and a lot of frustration, the court seemed to manage to distill what he wanted to say overall. If I have got this wrong, I could barely understand his Italian myself.
Basically he said that he was on the road heading out to a bar, and it was around 9:30pm or so. He was driving along Via della Pergola and at a speed of about 40-50 km/hr (about 25-30 mph) he approached what looked to be a black sack in the middle of the road. He stopped suddenly to discover that the dark object was in fact Raffaele and Amanda lying down.
First Sollecito came to the driver’s side of the door, and winding his window down, Mr Kokomani hit Sollecito, complaining that he himself was almost hit. Amanda Knox then appeared on the passenger’s side of the car and pulled out a large knife, which he described as the same as the one he saw in the paper sequestered from RS’s apartment.
She raised it above her head with both hands, holding both the handle and blade, and began to curse at him in Italian, uttering various threats. He then proceeded to throw olives at Amanda’s face, and then he threw his old Nokia phone and managed to hit her in the forehead. He took a snapshot of Amanda and Raf with his other phone (an Ericsson) and then moved along a bit.
He next saw Rudy Guede at the top of the driveway, and at the same time he could hear yelling, one person. yelling by herself or himself, perhaps moaning about something. He asked Guede what that was, and he responded it was just music at the house and that Knox had the knife because they had used it to cut a cake at a party at the house.
Mr Kokomani looked at the house and saw that a light was on. He then proceeded on his way, shaken by what just happened. He showed the picture to people at the bar, and they said “oh it’s just the Pugliese kid…. no worries” and since the picture was dark he deleted it.
He also apparently testified about seeing Amanda and Raffaele together in a bar or café in August or later, most probably late September, with her uncle who was described as robust and 50-60 years old. I could not make heads or tails if that was what was actually said or not. Mr Kokomani’s testimony took forever to extract, and had to be interrupted by a break.
Ms Buongiorno seemed to see a fish in a barrel here and she began to shoot. To give you an idea of how all over the place the questions and answers were, when asked “what color is your car” his response was literally “black blue”. When asked again he said “I paid only two hundred Euro for it”. When asked at what time do you usually eat dinner, he said “when I get hungry”.
When asked what color Amanda’s eyes were, forgetting the fact that she was sitting 5 feet away, he says “occhi bianchi” (white eyes). When asked how he knew the time when he was on the street, he stated, “I have a clock on my dashboard”, but when asked what time it said, he responded, “it does not work”. When asked if he spoke to reporters, he said “NO”, then “maybe”, then “I dont think so”. The defense then showed him being interviewed by a Canale 5 reporter, and his final answer was “yes”.
Who knows quite what he saw that night, which he described as raining. In the end we deduced that since he worked that day and the next day was a holiday (November 1st was the “Fest dei Morti”) this incident must have occurred in one form or another on the 31st of October (Halloween) and not on the 1st of November. Exit this witness in handcuffs.
Note: His testimony cannot be completely dismissed, though I just dont know quite what to make of it. I am surprised the defense did not request his testimony be completely eliminated, given what occurred in court, and given the fact that even Judge Paolo Micheli blocked him out of the equation when deciding if there was enough evidence against Knox and Sollecitto to proceed to trial.
2. Coming up next week
It appears that next Friday, April 3rd, the court will hear the medical examiner Dr Lalli testifying, and on Saturday the 4th supposedly Rudy Guede himself. Then on the 18th the court may arrange for the jury to visit Meredith’s house, without the presence of Sollecito and Knox. This could not yet be firmly decided.
Trial: Report From The Courtroom On Testimony Of Witnesses On The Night
Posted by stewarthome2000
[Meredith’s house down at right; Ms Capezzali’s apartment above the cars at center, one floor above ground level]
1. Witnesses Today In Court
On Friday the court heard from Nara Capezzali, Maria Luisa Dramis, Antonella Monacchia, Giampaolo Lombardi, Francesco Tavernese, Leonardo Fazio, and Antonio Galizzi. Also Knox & Sollecito sort-of talked.
1) Nara Capezzali
She is a 69 year old widow who lives with her daughter in an apartment just above the San Antonio parking facility which is located across the street from the house in Via della Pergola. She cannot see the entire house, but she is able to see the roof.
Note: There was no doubt that Mrs. Capezzali does not have the best memory in her aging years, but she was sure of what she had seen and heard those days, even though the times that she testified may have been a bit off here and there. She seemed to testified with heart and sincerity.
She stated that on the evening of November 1st she had gone to bed, as usual, around 9:30pm or so. About two hours later, she woke up to go to the bathroom and testified it was about 11-11:30 or so as she usually gets up at this time because she takes a diuretic before bed that kicks in about 2 hours afterwards. She also sometimes wakes up from the late night noise outside her window and stated that it was not unusual for her to be woken up at night because of noise.
But she said that what she heard on November 1st was not the usual noise. She stated that on her way to the bathroom she passed by her living room window, and heard a loud and horrible scream. It was not a short scream, it lasted rather longer and it was quite shocking to her.
She went to the bathroom and looked out the window, but saw no-one. A minute or two later, she heard footsteps running, not just one set of footsteps, but two or more. One set came from the metal stairs next to the parking facility on the right, the other in the opposite direction on the pavement through the foliage.
She was so shaken by this ghastly scream that she could not sleep. She stayed up a while until in the early morning hours she made herself a chamomile tea and finally managed to get to sleep.
She then testified that she woke up the next morning around 7:30-8:00am, maybe later, and then she went to get some bread at the store and it was at that time around 11:00am that she was told by people who she met at the magazine kiosk in Piazza Grimana that there was a murder at the house in Via della Pergola.
She said she returned to her house and watched the police, the carabinieri, CSI, and so on at the house. She said she saw Sollecito and Knox standing by the house and also on the parking-facility deck while the police where at the house. (Note: We are not sure that RS and AK were ever on the parking-facility deck roof, that is unconfirmed.)
Under cross-examination, Sollecito’s lawyer Ms Buongiorno tripped her up on the times and the fact that she never mentioned the chamomile tea in her written testimony, and also grilled her on why she waited 20 days to come to talk to police. Ms Capezzali insisted that her testimony of what she heard on the night was the truth and began to cry when Ms Buongiorno read her original testimony of the incident.
Note: She clearly cried because she had grasped fully that the horrible scream coincided with the last moments of Meredith’s life. She may have been confused about the exact times and calendar date, but overall her testimony was very believable, and she struck a chord with all those present.
2) Maria Luisa Dramis
She is a young woman who also lives above the parking facility and though her bedroom window faces the via del Melo at back where her front door is, the “back” of her apartment faces north over Via della Pergola, and she can see the roof of the house and the top part of the doorway.
Her testimony was relatively short. She stated that on November 1st she went to the movies with a friend, and she returned home around 11:00-11:30pm. She had gone to bed shortly after arriving at home and was woken shortly afterwards by someone running up or down her street. She did say that it is not unusual to hear people on the street below, but this time someone was running.
3) Antonella Morlacchia
She is a young woman who lives with her parents in Via Pinturicchio, the street behind the parking facility and houses that overlook it. The apartment is large and a portion of it looks down over Via della Pergola. She can see clearly from her window the house with its roof, terrace, window, doors, driveway, and so on.
She testified that around 10:00pm she heard people arguing. It seemed to be a man and a woman; she looked outside her window and did not see anyone. But the arguing was definitely coming from Via della Pergola. She could not say for certain it was coming from the house, though she did look at it and notice that the house was dark.
She said that after the loud arguing she went back to bed. She did not come forward to submit her testimony for nearly a year after the crime, as she did not think it was relevant, but a journalist friend following the case then convinced her to come forward.
4) Giampaolo Lambrotti
He is the tow truck driver who went to Via della Pergola on the evening of November 1st to assist a car in distress parked on the opposite side of the road only a few meters from the entrance to the house. He said he received the service call around 10:30-10:40pm and it took him about 15-20 minutes to arrive at the location.
The car was located just before the parking facility entrance/exit so he had a clear view of the entrance to the house as he was working practically across the street from the gate. There were two couples waiting for him (two guys, two girls) who told him that that they were from Rome and on vacation.
As he prepared the car for the tow, he noted that in the driveway across the street ““ the entrance to Via della Pergola ““ there was a small dark-colored car parked in front of the driveway gate. The gate was slightly opened. He finished his work and went on his way. He could not identify the type or color of car for sure, only that it was there and it was a dark color.
5) Francesco Tavernese
He is the director of the men’s ONAOSI student center for university students in Perugia where Sollecito was housed from 2003 to 2005.
Note: ONAOSI is basically a non-profit entity created by medical professionals which has support facilities for their children when they are students at several universities. The facilities are located in a few towns in Italy, including Perugia, and include dorms, cafeteria, sports facilities, library, computer lab, theater, medical doctor, and etc. all on site. They are designed to give these students an advantage and make up for the extra-curricular shortfalls of Italian universities. Sollecito’s father is a urologist, so of course he was eligible for participation.
The director described Sollecito as introverted, “taciturno” (basically none-talkative), shy and often blushing. He said it took a while for Sollecito to settle into life away from his home in Bari. He seemed homesick at first, but he matured quite a bit and began to find his place. He was into films and sports, especially kick boxing. The staff did periodic drug checks of his room but never found anything. They found a number of movies, some of which were porno, some perhaps extreme, some perhaps reflecting the normal curiosities of post adolescents.
6) Leonardo Fazio
He is a young man of Sollecito’s age who became friends with him during his time at ONAOSI. He described Raf as introverted and “tranquilla” but sportive and liking to go to the gym. His testimony had to do with him seeing Sollecito and Knox two or three days after the murder, carrying on normally and seemingly completely undisturbed by the incident. He contradicted himself a number of times and just lifted his shoulders in ignorance when his testimony discrepancies were pointed out.
7) Antonio Galizzi
He is the captain of the carabinieri station in Giovinazzo, a town just up the coast from Bari, where Sollecito grew up. He did not have much to report except the arrest in 2003 of Sollecito and some friends for possession of 2.657 grams of hashish. He had nothing negative to say about Sollecito, and he recalled him in grammar school as a normal student, never in trouble and “tranquilla”. He knew the Sollecito family fairly well, and he personally investigated the death of Sollecito’s mother, which was untimely and the result of heart problems.
2. Observation of Knox and Sollecito
During the break, when no one was obstructing their view of one another, Sollecito and Knox had a long conversation from afar (3 meters or about 10 feet away from each other). They communicated with hand signals, silent mouth gestures and smiles galore.
I watched as she seem to congratulate him and say happy birthday, and they asked how each other was doing. Knox indicated she was sleepy but okay. It was the longest conversation I think they have had since their incarceration. It seemed as if nothing had changed between them.
Trial: Sky News’s Report On Today’s Eyewitnesses EDIT
Posted by Peter Quennell
[This excellent report has scrolled away. We’ll try to find it elsewhere.]
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Trial: Italian Media Reporting Events In The Park On The Night
Posted by Peter Quennell
[Basketball court: house is down straight ahead, steps are far right, benches are far left]
The Italian media are reporting Antonio Curatolo’s testimony.
Quick translation: Mr Curatolo, who is homeless, has slept for eight or nine years on a park bench. Around 9:30 on the night, while he was reading a newspaper, he looked up and saw the two defendants sitting on a low wall near a streetlight.
At times the boy got up and headed toward the outside railing in the direction of the cottage in via della Pergola. He saw the two together up to 11:30 pm or so. “I was sitting on the bench,” Mr Curatolo said, “I was reading the Express. I looked up four to five times and each time I saw the two together. I do not like to take advantage of others. I state that what I say do not say this to hurt anybody.”
He also reported that the next day around 12:30, he saw the in the street by the house an ambulance and police, and the arrival of a team in white overalls.
[Below: the view of the gate of the house from the park]
Trial: ABC’s Ann Wise Reporting On Perugia And Bari Witnesses
Posted by Peter Quennell
Witnesses From Perugia And Bari
1. Mara Capezzali
Mara Capezzali, an elderly woman who lives across a parking lot from the house, testified that at about 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 1, 2007, she woke up in her home and while walking to the bathroom she heard a woman scream.
“It was not a normal scream,” said Capezzali, “it made my skin crawl.”
Capezzali was on the stand to testify in the trial of American student Amanda Knox, 21, and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 25, who are accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher.
Kercher, 21, was found dead in her bedroom in a pool of blood with her throat slit on the morning of Nov. 2, 2007. A third man, Ivory Coast citizen Rudy Guede, was earlier sentenced to 30 years in jail for participating in the murder, which he denied.
When asked to describe the scream she heard more specifically, Capezzali said it was a long scream, and she imitated it softly. The only other place she had heard such a scream, she said, was at the movies.
Capezzali looked out her bathroom window but saw nothing. Shortly afterwards she said she heard people running, at least two people in opposite directions almost simultaneously.
“I heard someone running on the metal stairs and someone else on the gravel and leaves in front of the house across the way,” Capezzali said.
Her testimony supported the prosecution theory that more than one person was at the scene of the crime when Kercher was killed.
Under cross-examination from defense attorneys, Capezzali became confused about events, and was unsure after repeated questioning of the date on which she heard the scream. But she said she was sure it was the night before she found out that Kercher had been killed.
2. Antonella Monacchia
Another witness, a young school teacher from Perugia, also told the court she had heard a scream the night of Nov. 1, 2007.
She testified that she awoke some time after 10 p.m., when she normally goes to bed, to the sound of two people arguing heatedly. Shortly after that she heard a scream.
She got out of bed and opened the window, but saw nothing. Everything was dark. Monacchia then went downstairs to her parents’ apartment, but they had heard nothing, after which she went back to bed.
Monacchia testified that the voices were a man and a woman yelling at each other in Italian. She did not hear what they said or whether they had any particular accent.
Monacchia’s bedroom window overlooks a parking lot, and has a clear view of the house where Kercher died.
3. Maria Dramis
A third witnes who lived in the area testified that on the same night she heard the sound of running footsteps under her window, a sound that woke her up around 11 p.m. This was not an unusual occurrence, but it struck her in light of what she found out the next morning about the death of Kercher just down the road.
A peculiarity about the testimony of the Monacchia Dramis is that they did not report what they had heard to investigators until over a year after the fact. When they finally did explain what they heard, it was only after prompting from a journalist who accompanied them to the police station.
“I thought that what I had heard was not important,” Monacchia said today of why she didn’t go to police earlier.
4. Sollecito Dormitory Connections
The director of a student dormitory in Perugia where Sollecito lived from 2003 to 2005 testified that he was “taciturn, introverted and shy” and that he often blushed.
Another student who also lived in the dorm at that time and was friends with Sollecito used very similar terms to describe the young student, confirming his quiet and reserved nature. The dormitory director told the court that Sollecito read Japanese Manga comics, watched many films and was once caught watching a sexually explicit movie.
5. Police Chief Antonio Galizia From Bari
The police chief from Sollecito’s hometown in southern Italy, said in court today that in 2003 Sollecito and some friends were caught in possession of one ounce of hashish at a nearby beach. That was, however, the only time Sollecito had been in trouble with the law.
When asked by Sollecito’s lawyer Luca Maori, Galizia also testified that Sollecito’s mother, who died when he was a teenager, had not committed suicide.
Maori later told reporters that Sollecito had agreed to have his mother’s death discussed in court, so, as he said, “we can clarify once and for all that she died from natural causes.” There had been repeated reports in the press that it was a suicide and that this had traumatized Sollecito.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Trial: Witness Emulates A Loud Scream She Heard On The Night
Posted by Peter Quennell
Nick Pisa has the first report. Excerpts:
Nara Capezzali, 68, told the trial of the Brit student’s alleged killers, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, the bloodcurdling scream “made my flesh crawl, it was not a normal scream”,,.
Mrs Capezzali said: “I went to bed around 9-9.30pm as there was nothing on the TV and I woke up around two hours later to go to the bathroom.
“On my way I passed by the window and heard a scream, not a normal scream but a prolonged scream, it made my skin crawl. I didn’t know what was happening.
“I looked out the window but didn’t see anything. Then a few minutes later I heard running on the metal staircase and then running through the leaves going in the other direction, it was at least two people.
“The scream left me really disturbed, even now it troubles me, it was a woman’s scream, there was no call for help it was just a scream, then nothing.”
Mrs Capezzali imitated the scream she heard by making a prolonged screeching noise.
Knox, dressed in a blue jumper and jeans, stared at Mrs Capezzali as she gave her evidence occasionally making notes or talking with her legal team.
A link to Kermit’s Powerpoints again on this very credible witness, and the CBS network’s hair-brained attempt to discredit her.
Nice move, CBS, intimidating foreign witnesses. Even nicer that you’ve been very quiet lately - and that you’ve disappeared Paul Ciolino.