Headsup: Disney's Hulu - mafia tool?! First warning already sent to the Knox series production team about the hoaxes and mafia connections. The Daily Beast's badly duped Grace Harrington calls it "the true story of Knox’s wrongful conviction of the murder of her roommate". Harrington should google "rocco sollecito" for why Italians hesitate to talk freely.

Category: Evidence & Witnesses

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]

Friday, March 27, 2009

Trial: Witness Emulates A Loud Scream She Heard On The Night

Posted by Peter Quennell

[click for larger image]

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.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Trial: The Court Agenda For Friday And Saturday Includes Witnesses On The Night

Posted by Peter Quennell

The judges and jury will be hearing testimony from the various eyewitnesses on the night of the crime.

Some of these names below, obtained for us by TJMK main poster Stewart Home in Perugia, have never before been released by the police or the prosecutors.

So we are still figuring out who some of them are. This post may have to remain a work in progress for the next two trial days. Tips via the comments or email would be welcome.

Friday witnesses

1) Nara Capezzali

Ms Capezalli is a neighbor in an apartment above the house who claims to have heard a terrified scream and then running feet on the night of the murder. Kenmits famous Powerpoints with photos of Ms Capezalli is here.

Judge Micheli found Ms Capezalli to be very credible. Read what he wrote in Brian’s summaries of Micheli #1 and #4 here.

2) Maria Ilaria Dramis

3) Antonella Monacchia

A young woman who lives with her parents in an apartment above Meredith’s house, who heard some heated arguing from the house on the night in question, and then a loud woman’s scream.

4) Giampaolo Lombardi

Mr Lombardi was the operator of the tow-truck that came to remove a passenger van that would not start at the intersection above the house on the night of the murder.

Mr Kokomani has indicated that he saw Mr Loambardi’s truck at the intersection, which is one reason why he is still a witness (see below).

5) Francesco Tavernese

Head of the hall of residence Sollecito stayed at in his early days in Perugia, which is run by the Fondazione Opera Nazionale Assistenza Orfani Sanitari for special cases

6) Leonardo Fazio

Mr Fazio is a young guy who was friends with Sollecito at one point, and can describe what his personality was like.

Saturday witnesses

1) Hekuran Kokomani

Mr Hekuran Kokomani is the colorful and peculiar but not discredited Albanian who may have encountered Knox, Sollecito and Guede on the street above the house immediately after the crime took place.

2) Antonio Aiello

Mr Aiello is Mr Kokomani’s lawyer, called as a character witness for Kokomani. He will testify to give Mr Kokomani (who first told him what he saw) due credibility.

3) Fabrizio Gioffredi

Mr Gioffredi is a professor who claims he saw Knox, Sollecito and Guede together with Meredith in Via della Pergola on 1 November.

4) Antonio Curatolo

Mr Curatolo hangs out in the neighborhood park, and he claims he saw Knox and Sollecito casing the gate of the house from the park on the night.

Despite defense-campaign claims to the contrary, as you can see below the gate of Meredith’s house is very easy to see from the park; this shot was taken right by where Knox and Sollecito are said to have been anxiously seated. Click on it for a larger image.The gate area is extremely brightly lit at night.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Trial: Report From The Courtroom On Testimony Of Numerous Witnesses

Posted by stewarthome2000

[Above: left room of Conad; manager serves in deli; arch by door connects with right room]

[above: right room of Conad store; cashier is against wall to right; arch is to left of door]

Multiple Witnesses In Court

Today at the trial we heard from a number of witnesses, and quite frankly I was looking forward some significant new testimony.

On the witness stand were (1) Jovana Popovic, (2) Alessandra Formica, (3) Rosa Natalia Guaman Fernandez De Calle, (4) Marco Quintavalle, and (5) Fabrizio Angeluce.

(1) Jovana Popovic

First up was Jovana Popovic, who is studying medicine in Perugia and who became a friend of Raffale’s after meeting him at a mutual friend’s house some months before. They were not really close, but they did go out with mutual friends together a number of times over a couple of months.

She stated that on November 1st, she passed by Raffaele’s around 5:30-5:45pm to ask if he could drive her in his car to the bus station, to pick up a suitcase that was due to arrive from Milan on a bus at midnight that evening. Since others were busy, and Raffaele had a car and it was late at night she asked him to do her this favor.

When she buzzed his door she was invited up, and Raffaele was there with Amanda. She requested the favor of him, he thought for a minute, and then he agreed to take her to the bus station at midnight.

She testified that he was a bit cold, then clarified that by saying that relative to the fun”“loving smile he always had, he seem a bit different, nothing to make a too big a deal over.

She stayed only a few minutes and left and planned to call, and she guessed they would meet in front of his place just before midnight to go get the suitcase. She recalled it was 5:30-5:45 because she had an appointment at 6:00pm about a 15-20 minute walk away and she was on time.

Not long afterwards, she was informed that the suitcase was NOT coming that night. So after her meeting which ended around 8:00pm she headed home, and decided to pass by Raffaele’s house, because it was on the way, to tell him she will not need any ride that evening. She said she rang the bell about 8:40pm, and Amanda answered and came to the door on the street.

She said that Raf was upstairs and invited Giovana up, but Giovana declined and said she just wanted to tell Raf that there was no need to go to the station but grazie anyway.

She spoke to Amanda for just a minute or so and then went on her way. That was the entire testimony. It helped both sides because on the one hand it proved AK and RS were together, and on the other hand it proves that they were in fact together at his apartment like they said.

(2) Alessandra Formica

The next witness was Alessandra Formica. She is the person who had informed the police that she and her boyfriend, while walking back to their car after dinner, bumped into a “person of color” on her way.

Essentially she testified that she and her boyfriend had parked their car in the famous parking building across from Meredith’s house around 8:00pm. They walked out of the garage, past the house, up across the square, and through the Etruscan arch to have dinner. The place was full so they waited about 40-50 minutes and finally finished dinner around 9:30pm.

They then took a short walk in the center of the old city and then headed down to their car. As they passed the basketball courts and started down the stairs and onto the road that leads down to Via della Pergola, she noticed a man in a dark puffy jacket, walking in a hurry with his head down, and he bumped into her. She focused on his face and could state the he was a “person of color” which essentially meant a black man.

She said “excuse me” and he said nothing and just kept going quickly in a rush. She noted how rude that was (rude as in “ill mannered” not ruede-y!) That incident occurred, by her estimates and the garage ticket, around 10:00-10:30pm.

She also remarked that just near the parking building entrance there was a station wagon with a guy outside it on his mobile phone, calling for help as the car did not start. She also saw a women in the back seat with a baby seat next to her”¦baby in it or not, she could not say.

Comment. It does seem that she most likely saw Guede leaving the crime scene, at between 10:00 and 10:30pm. This also fits with one of Meredith’s stolen mobile phone picking up another cell tower at 10:13pm. If Guede took the phones, it seems to me that this helped the Knox and Sollecito defenses more than the prosecution.

(3) Rosa Natalia Guman Fernendez de Calle

Next Rosa Natalia Guman Fernendez de Calle, an Ecuadorian woman, took the stand. She had been Sollecito’s cleaning lady. She had worked for him about 2 months and would come every Monday around 2:00 to 4:00 pm to clean his apartment. She stated that she used only Lysoform, which is a general household cleaner like Mr. Clean. She would vacuum, mop the floor, clean the bathroom and kitchen, and so on. The cleaning products were kept under the kitchen sink as in most homes, and there were usually about 5-6 different cleaning products there and other cleaning supplies.She had been told to only ever use Lysoform to clean.

The last time she cleaned the apartment went was on November 5th, and Sollecito and Knox were there then. She went under the sink to get the cleaning products, and noticed a bucket with water in it and wet mop rags. She asked why the wet rags and the bucket, and he said they had had a leak. She did say the bucket had water in it and it was clear.

When asked if she ever used bleach in his home she said absolutely not. When asked if there was bleach among the cleaning products, she said she could not say either way. The 5th of November was the last day she worked for Sollecito as he was subsequently arrested.

(4) Marc Quintavalle

The next witness was the highlight of the day. This was Marc Quintavalle, the owner of the small grocery store located on Via Garibaldi, the street that Solliceto lived on. Comment: his testimony was very precise, almost too precise for someone who recalls a long-ago incident from memory, but here goes”¦

On November 2nd he was heading back to his grocery store after lunch. He parked his car, and noticed there were carabinieri, police, etc. on Via della Pergola. He walked past them all, stopped to get a coffee at the bar on the corner, and then headed back to work. He was told at this time there was a murder.

It was not until many days later that he was told that Sollecito, a frequent customer in his grocery store, had been arrested with his girlfriend for the murder. After some time, he had remembered the day of the murder because he encountered the police and carabinieri cars several days after.Then it hit him what had happened that morning.

He said he arrived at his shop at 7:45am to open the security doors to be open for business. His two cashiers and helpers (two women) get there at 7:30am and begin to get ready for customers before opening time.

He said as he was opening the security gate on the store, a girl was standing at the door with him waiting for the store to open. He remembers that she had a hat on, jeans, a scarf and a grey-white jacket. But most of all he remembers that she had blue, really blue eyes. He noticed because her skin was very pale.

He opened the store door and said “buon giorno” but she did not say anything in response, and she headed to the part of the store [second image at top here] where they stock cleaning products, soap, towels, and also cups, coffee, and miscellaneous household items. The cashier is also located there.

He paid her no attention, but he did see her eventually leave and head down the street in the direction of the piazza that connects to Via della Pergola. Since he was not at the cash register he did not serve her and he could not say what she bought, and he did not think to ask the cashier at that time .

Many days afterwards, he saw a picture of Amanda Knox in the paper and said to himself, “OMG that is her, that is the girl that was at my store that morning”. Having seen her various times previously in the store, he was sure that it was Knox. He confirmed that it was some months later that he went to the police to tell them what he had witnessed the morning after the murder.

The courtroom was on edge when the prosecutor asked Quintavalle to identify the person he saw that morning by looking at a picture.

He finally looked directly at Amanda in the courtroom, staring at her in the eye only a few feet away and stated, “era lei, era Knox…” - “It was her, it was Knox, she was the person I saw that morning”.

Comments: this was quite a climax of a scene. A direct eye witness testifying, without any doubt in his mind, that in effect Knox was lying about not getting up until around 10am on that morning.

Quintavalle had asked his cashiers if they remembered her or what she had bought that morning, but they did not remember anything. Quintavalle stated that detergent bleach is sold in his store for 1.09 euro per bottle and he carries only one kind (ACE), and they are all 1.09 per bottle.

Comment: if the prosecution introduces a till receipt for a 1.09 euro item sold at approximately 8:00am on November 2nd this would be very telling. So far such a receipt has not been introduced. The Police sequestered the till receipts, but have not officially released the findings. A possible problem is that many places don’t even ring up the items on the register to save the taxes and half probably go missing anyway. But overall, this was quite damning testimony.

The defense attempted to discredit Quintavalle, noting that it was all so long ago and how could anyone say in such detail who was there with any certainty? They also drilled him for supposedly violating a gag order, giving interviews for money, appearing on “Porta a porta” and so on.

Comment: that essentially washed away. I must admit he was so certain, and gave so much detail of what happened that morning after so much time had passed, it seemed like a feat of superhuman memory. But Quintavalle prides himself on his excellent memory, and now his statement is in the record.

(5) Fabrizio Angeluce

Finally we heard from Fabrizio Angeluce, the owner of the laundromat and dry cleaners also located on Via Garibaldi.

His testimony was simple. He basically said that Raffaele came into his store on either Friday the 2nd or Monday the 5th of Nov ““ he could not remember the exact date but it was one of the two ““ and dropped off one shirt that was not exactly new, and seemed to have been washed. (Comment: For me it must have been the 5th as he was said to have dropped it off midday and we know where he was at midday on the 2nd.)

Sollecito had asked if he could dry clean the shirt as soon as possible, and get a rush service done because he needed it urgently. The witness said the shirt was brown and not exactly new. and and it seemed to have already been washed. He washed and ironed the shirt and that was it.

He decided to come to the police after he heard that Sollecito was arrested. Sollecito has claimed that he needed his shirt soon as it was the one he would wear to his graduation exam and ceremony.

Bottom line

Other days at trial I am thinking this is all looking bad for the defendants, but then after a day like today, I am thinking the defense can use these witnesses when it’s their turn at bat. Except for the testimony of Quintavalle, the other witnesses also supported some defense points.

Trial: Did Someone Prevent Meredith Calling Home On The Night?

Posted by Peter Quennell

“The British student Meredith Kercher may have tried to telephone her mother in a last cry for help before she was overpowered and stabbed to death in Perugia in central Italy.”

This story on one of Meredith;s last actions out of the courtroom yesterday is being very widely picked up around the world. Click above for John Follain’s report.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Trial: Testimony Places Amanda Knox At Supermarket Here Early Morning After The Crime

Posted by Peter Quennell

Above center: people entering and leaving the Conad supermarket in Via Garibaldi.

Other shots here. This small supermarket franchise is less than 100 meters from the School for Foreigners (straight ahead).

It is about five minutes walk from Meredith’s house (off to the left) and about five minutes walk from Sollecito’s apartment (directly behind).

The Associated Press has just reported on the testimony of Marco Quintavalle, the manager of the store.

A grocer testified Saturday that an American student accused of killing her British roommate in Italy was in his store early on the morning after the death, contradicting the timeline she offered…

Sollecito said he spent the night at his house, and does not remember if Knox spent all or part of it with him. Knox, after conflicting statements, eventually said she was at Sollecito’s house and awoke mid-morning on Nov. 2, 2007.

Witness Marco Quintavalle said Saturday that a young woman he identified as Knox entered his grocery store near Sollecito’s house in Perugia at 7:45 a.m. on Nov. 2. He said the woman was waiting for him to open the store, and that he and she exchanged glances when she entered.

“It really struck me, she had a very pale face and these light eyes,” Quintavalle said. “I can still see the image in my head.”

Asked by the presiding judge if that woman was in the courtroom, Quintavalle said he was sure it was Knox. “Now I’m sure,” he said, looking at her. Knox did not appear to react.

Quintavalle said he did not know if Knox bought anything because he was not at the cash register that morning. He said he had seen Knox one or two times before at his store with Sollecito, a frequent customer.

Defense lawyers questioned the reliability of the witness. Carlo Dalla Vedova asked him if he could say how tall Sollecito is and what color his eyes are. Quintavalle gave an indication on the height and said he was not sure about Sollecito’s eye color.

The Daily Telegraph report added this detail.

[Mr Quintavalle] said"I was inside and I opened the shutters of my supermarket at 7.45am. Outside I saw a girl waiting to come inside.

“She had a hat and jeans on but what struck me was how pale she looked and the colour of her blue eyes, I can still see them in front of me now.

“She was young, around 20 or 21 years old. She came in and went to the section at the back of the supermarket on the left where there are the cleaning products.

“I can’t remember if she bought anything. A few hours later I heard about the murder and then a few days later I saw Amanda’s picture in the newspaper and I recognised her as the same girl.”

He said he had no doubt about identifying her. “The shape of the face was the same, as was the nose, she was pretty. For me the girl in the newspapers was the same girl.”

Trial: Report From The Courtroom On Vodaphone Testimony

Posted by stewarthome2000

[above: a defendant-mobile entering Cappanne Prison]

It was a technical day in court, mostly devoted to confirming events and facts that we the public have already known about for a while. The court heard from the Vodaphone engineers, the communications investigator from Rome, and the Perugia homicide squad.

The Vodaphone engineers illustrated that cell phone uses cell points to connect, and those cell points cover certain areas. As you move about, your phone gets switched from tower to tower depending on your location, choosing the best signal for it. Many times, signals from cell points overlap, so one area can be serviced by three or more towers, and if one is blocked or congested the other processes the call.

Why all the background? Because they were setting the stage to show that Sollecito’s cell phone having no traffic from 8:42pm till 6:02am on the night of the murder was not due to him being unable to get a signal at his home. His neighborhood is well covered with cell areas, so most likely the phone was turned off and then turned back on again.

The engineers essentially proved that his phone was, beyond reasonable doubt, turned off from sometime after 8:42pm and turned on at 6:02am. At 6:02am he finally received a sms text that his dad sent the night before around 11:15pm, which had been undeliverable while the phone was switched off.

This was shown to be unusual behavior for him, because throughout the entire month of October he never once tuned his mobile phone off so early (nearly every night it was on till around 11 or midnight or later) or ever once turned it on so early - usually he turned back on well after 9, 10 or even 11am. So they showed not only that this behavior was unusual and unprecedented for him”¦ but that it happened to be on the night that Meredith was murdered.

It was also shown that Sollecito on the day of the 2nd topped up his phone with more credit, around 12:20pm, and then called his sister at 12:50pm, and the carabinieri at 12:51pm (connection failed) and then again at 12:55pm. Thereafter, he and his dad exchanged a number of calls, up until he arrived at the police station in the late afternoon.

Knox’s phone was shown to confirm on the night of the murder the exchange of sms messages with Patrick Lumumba, where Patrick sent a message to AK at 8:18pm (in effect “no need to come to work”) and she responded with the message at 8:35pm “ci vediamo piu tardi, buona serata” (“we will see each other later, good evening”).

The police right after the crime thought that might be evidence against Patrick, but I see where the mix-up comes from, because “pui tardi” is almost exclusively used when you plan to see someone later that day or in a few hours. She should have said “ci vediamo presto” which means “soon” or just “ci vediamo”. The way she wrote it, any Italian would think it meant in a few hours or very soon thereafter.

It was confirmed that the last communication from Knox’s phone on the night of the murder was at 8:35pm. Then there was nothing untill the next morning, when she tried to call Meredith’s UK cellphone at 12:07pm. Then she called Filomena, then Meredith’s Italian phone, and then she called home to Seattle a number of times.

The police also showed that Raffaele’s fixed line at his house showed no activity between 12:02pm on the 1st and 2:16pm on the 3rd. So much for activity on his land line or internet.

One interesting fact to emerge was that the eye witness who is saying he saw the three of them together the night of the murder had his mobile phone traced as well. It was shown to be in the Assisi area till the late afternoon on the 1st and then it entered the cell area of Via della Pergola at 8:01pm. So he was in fact in that part of the city on that evening. The prosecution made a request to note that fact.

They also showed, with a dispute from Sollecito’s lawyer Buongiorno, that Meredith’s cell phone made a call (not a phone call but a GPS call attempt) at I believe around 10:15pm, and that the call was made from the area where the phones were found the next day as it involved a different cell tower than those covering Via della Pergola.

So most likely the phone was in the possession of the killer and right then already on its way to the garden in Via Sperandio. So Meredith was most likely killed just before that time. This cell point analysis was done during the day and in a limited area, so this finding was disputed by the defense.

Finally, the homicide squad covered more ground.  They testified that Sollecito’s ASUS computer was already broken before they collected it for testing. They also indicated that they had been monitoring the phone activity and calls of everyone concerned for some time after the murder, including those of Raffaele’s dad. He had made a number of calls, to some of his political connections, to journalists, to legal counsel, to Panorama Magazine, and so on.

They also described the crime scene, and who precisely went in, and who was found at the scene, and who sequestered the knife at Sollecito’s home. One inspector initially claimed that Sollecito’s place smelled like bleach. Buongiorno attacked this, and he changed it to, okay, it smelled as if it had been cleaned with soap.

Overall, the testimony today mainly confirmed in precise and suggestive scientific detail much of what had been in the public area about the communications for some time.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Trial: ABC News Report: Experts Remark On Very Odd Phone Patterns

Posted by Peter Quennell

In another objective report for ABC News, Rome-based reporter Ann Wise adds the following details.

Sollecito was particularly cheerful today…. as the 10th hearing of the trial concentrated on phone records.

Sollecito has always maintained that he was home in his apartment the night of the murder and initially told police his father had called him at home around 11 p.m.

Phone records later showed that he received no such call.,,,

Police investigator Letterio Latella testified today that Knox and Sollecito’s cell phones were inactive most of the night, and activity on the cell phones stopped almost simultaneously….

Latella said that he did not find any evidence of a similar “blackout” of Knox and Sollecito’s phones in the month preceding the murder.

Normally, investigators have said, both Knox and Sollecito’s phones were on until late at night and would come back on in the late morning.

Trial: Testimony On Mobile Phones, Suspicious Silence At Just The Wrong Time

Posted by Peter Quennell

Expert testimony essentially did not depart from the narrative in particular set out by Judge Micheli.

He was the judge who committed Knox and Sollecito to trial. For the full report by Alessandra Rizzo of AP click above. 

1) On the switching off and on of the mobile phones:

The cell phones of two defendants in the murder of a British student killed in Italy remained inactive the night of the murder, witnesses testified Friday.

Investigators say having their cell phones turned off made their whereabouts untraceable. Defense lawyers contend that the cell phone data were inconclusive….

Police inspector Letterio Latella, who analyzed the data, said Knox’s and Sollecito’s cell phones showed no activity on the night of the crime. His testimony confirmed previous witness accounts and provided details of the cell phones’ traffic.

In lengthy testimony supported by PowerPoint slides, Latella said Sollecito’s cell phone remained inactive between 8:42 p.m. of Nov. 1 and 6:02 a.m. of Nov. 2, when he received a text message from his father.

Latella suggested that the cell phone had been turned off because the text message had been sent the night before. He said there were no reported glitches in the network that night, and that other cell phones active in the area appeared to function properly.

Knox’s cell phone was inactive between 8:35 p.m. of Nov. 1 and 12:07 p.m. of Nov. 2, according to Latella, who studied documents provided by the phone operators. At 12:07 p.m., Knox’s called Kercher’s British number….

2) On Knox’s text exchange on the night of the murder with Patrick Lumumba

Phone records showed [Knox] exchanged text messages with the Congolese owner of a pub where she used to work part-time, Latella and other witnesses said.

The messages Knox sent at 8:35 p.m. to the man, Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, said: “Sure. See you later. Have a good night!” said Simone Tacconi of the telecommunications branch of Rome police. The message was written in Italian.

Lumumba was detained for two weeks in November 2007 after he was implicated by Knox. He has since been cleared and is seeking defamation damages from Knox.

Trial: Proceedings Resume, The Agenda For Friday And Saturday Is 11 Witnesses

Posted by Peter Quennell

Eleven witnesses are scheduled - and they are probably about to provide some really dramatic testimony.

On Friday, the police experts who analysed the locations and activities of the phones relevant to the case will take the stand. The phones in question include Meredith’s two mobile phones (one of which was in Filomena’s name) which may have been removed from the house to prevent Meredith from calling for help as she lay dying.

They were both tossed into a garden very close to Sollecito’s and Guede’s places. The finding and reporting of one of the phones resulted in the Communication Police visiting Meredith’s house, where they have testified they found Knox and Sollecito outside apparently quite startled, with a mop and a bucket and the washing machine still running just inside.

One issue is whether anyone tried to use one of Meredith’s phones to communicate deliberately with Meredith’s password-protected bank account in the UK. Her rent money of course disappeared at the time of the murder, and Guede, Sollecito and Knox may all have been low on funds.

There should be confirmation that Sollecito’s father called Sollecito on his apartment’s land-line very late on the evening of the crime. His call went unresponded-to, perhaps because nobody was home at the time.

And there should be confirmation that Sollecito’s and Knox’s mobiles were turned off more or less simultaneously at Sollecito’s house less than an hour before the crime against Meredith took place, and that at least one of them was switched back on before daybreak the next morning, at a time when Knox and Sollecito have both claimed to have been asleep. 

On Saturday, the manager of the Conad supermarket in lower Via Garibaldi (in Sollecito’s street, and about 200 meters from Meredith’s house) will give testimony on whether Knox was seen in the supermarket early on the morning after the crime, and whether any bleach was sold. His previous statement included this:

I saw Amanda, on the morning they found the body of Meredith, doing some shopping at around 7.45am,” the witness, whose name has not yet been released, claimed.

“She was in the part of the shop where they keep detergents, but I couldn’t say for sure if she bought anything,” the man was quoted as saying by the Giornale dell’Umbria newspaper.

“I thought it was very strange for a student to be out so early in the morning. That morning was virtually a holiday, there were no lectures, if there had been I could understand her being up so early.”

Also on Saturday, the boyfriend of Alessandra Formica who apparently saw a black man similar to Guede running up the stairs near the house will testify. He and his girlfriend are often referred to as the diners, and they were returning to their parked car at the time. This could be vital to a firm timeline.

And also on Saturday the man sitting on a bench in the Piazza Grimana, from which the gate of Meredith’s house can easily be seen, is expected to testify that Knox and Sollecito came and sat nearby, late in the evening, and seemed to be keeping an anxious eye on that gate.

The timing of that action appears to be just minutes after a neighbor whose apartment looks onto the house heard a terrible scream and then footsteps running from the house in several directions.

Knox’s stepfather Chris Mellas is expected to again be present. He doesn’t speak Italian. Nevertheless, his spin on the above is awaited with great interest.