Saturday, June 18, 2011
Today’s Star Witnesses For The Defense Alessi & Aviello Up To Necks In Trouble?
Posted by Peter Quennell
Alessi above; no shot of Aviello available due to protected status
1. Summary Report
Today the Long-shot defense witnesses Mario Alessi and Luciano Aviello were heard.
Already the Italian media are reporting on what looks like a slow moving train-wreck for the defense.
1. Mario Alessi
We have already had many posts on Alessi (read from the bottom up). Frankly, not a great choice. Mario Alessi is one of the least liked and trusted characters in Italy.
In part because before Alessi was arrested for killing a baby with a spade after kidnapping the parents, he was seen on national TV saying “Who could have done such a horrible thing?” Attempts to hoodwink the Italian public and courts never seem to go over very well.
Main reporting on the testimony of Mario Alessi will be available later today.
Here is what we already know.
1) Alessi’s nervous and defiant claims on the witness stand that Guede told him Sollecito and Knox were not involved sounded distinctly hollow.
2) The prosecution ripped into him during the cross-examination phase and left him squirming and evasive on his claims.
3) The prosecution announced that the police have already investigated him for false claims, and a request for his prosecution has been sent to Viterbo.
4) The lawyer for the victim’s family also ripped into him with a description of his murder of a baby, with an image of the baby being presented to the court.
5) Alessi then developed some sort of health condition with low blood pressure as one of the symptoms, and was briefly treated.
6) Alessi seemed to be trying to opt out from any more interrogation on the stand, but Judge Hellman ordered him to come back.
2. Luciano Aviello
Luciano Aviello next took the stand.
We have already had many posts on Aviello too (read from the bottom up). Again this is not someone Italy likes or trusts.
The Naples Comorrah mafia snitch among other things accused his missing brother and one other of murdering Meredith while in the wrong house looking for valuable art. Hellman had real problems keeping order in the court as Aviello also accused the police and RS lawyer Bongiorno of crimes.
The prosecution cross-examination of Aviello was cut off. Oddly, Hellman appeared to not want to hear about those latter accusations at all.
A fuller report will be posted when the media reports come out. It will be interesting to see if any photographs appear of Aviello. There are no recent shots. Barbie Nadeau tweeted from the court that he looks about 12 years old.
If he cannot produce Meredith’s keys or a knife that he claimed he buried at his brother’s request, he too will be toast and also facing new charges.
2 Longer Report #1
From an excellent report in the Daily Beast by Barbie Nadeau:
Five super-witnesses took center stage in a Perugia courtroom in defense of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, who are appealing their convictions for killing Meredith Kercher.
[Mario Alessi]
The first witness, Mario Alessi, was on the stand briefly before he turned pale and took ill and had to leave the courtroom. After nearly an hour, he returned to tell the court a very convincing story about how Rudy Guede admitted that Knox and Sollecito were not part of Kercher’s murder and that a “drunk man” and a “fat guy” killed her instead.
He started by recounting how he and Guede found a quiet spot in the prison yard out of the view of the closed-circuit television camera and Rudy poured his heart out, telling him the real story of Kercher’s murder.
Alessi’s account was rich in detail as he explained how he tried to convince Guede to “tell the truth.” The only problem with Alessi is the fact that he is one of Italy’s most notorious murderers himself, convicted for the 2006 kidnapping and murder of a two-year-old boy.
The lawyer representing the Kercher family Francesco Maresca held up a photo of the child and asked Alessi, “Do you know who this is?” “No,” Alessi replied, looking away. “That’s ok, we know who he is,” replied Maresca.
[Alessi Cellmates]
Three more witnesses followed, each backing up Alessi’s account of Rudy’s story, each one more colorful than the previous… their credibility was deemed questionable based on the fact that they were convicts and the essence of their testimony was prison-yard gossip.
The judge… decided he needs to hear from Guede himself to clarify the prison gossip. That hearing was scheduled for June 27. And Guede will testify.
[Luciano Aviello]
The final witness threw a curveball in a day that was going largely Knox’s way.
Luciano Aviello took the stand to tell the court that his brother was the real murderer. He explained that he was just out of prison for mafia collusion and living in a “mini apartment” in Perugia “thanks to your generous justice system” he added, looking at the judge for effect.
Then he explained that on the night of November 1, after he got back to Perugia after a quick trip home to Naples, his brother came to his apartment at around 10 or 11 at night.
“My brother came in and sat on the sofa. The right arm of his jacket was ripped and he could see blood on his arm. My brother then pulled out a pocket knife and a set of keys. He was very afraid. He didn’t want to create problems for me in Perugia. My brother was very emotional.”
Aviello then went on to explain that his brother had met up with an Albanian man who offered him “work” in the form of a robbery. The Albanian had inadvertently jotted down the address incorrectly and they went instead to the house where Kercher and Knox were living.
Having found Kercher home alone, they started to attack her sexually and then they killed her. “I’m not telling you this because I have hate inside me for my brother,” he said. “I am coming forward because it is the right thing for me to do.”
At one point he lectured the prosecutor about jumping to conclusions too quickly. “Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are innocent,” he said. Then under cross examination he lost his temper and exploded into a near-rage of wild gesticulation and Neapolitan dialect that was largely incomprehensible…
[Reaction Of Knox]
Knox, who was dressed in a conservative skirt and blue blouse, looked dismayed during most of the hearing. Her appeal is winding down and she knows well that every trial date should count towards proving her innocence, and potentially setting her free….
3. Longer Report #2
This is by our main poster Will Savive.
Another prison inmate Luciano Aviello [42] who has served 17 years in jail after being convicted of being a member of the Naples-based Camorra, testified today that his brother Antonio and his colleague had killed Meredith while attempting to steal a “valuable painting.”
Aviello said that the Albanian (who offered his brother “work” in the form of a robbery) had inadvertently jotted down the wrong address, and they instead went to the house where Kercher and Knox were living, and they were surprised by Meredith’s appearance. According to Aviello, his brother and the Albanian man then committed the murder and fled.
Aviello is from Naples, but was living in Perugia at the time of the murder. He claims that his brother, who is currently on the run, was staying with him in late 2007 and on the night of the murder he returned home with an injury to his right arm and his jacket covered in blood.
Flanked by two prison guards, Aviello described how his brother had entered the house Meredith shared with Knox and had been looking for the painting when they were disturbed by a woman “wearing a dressing gown.” So many convicts, which one to believe, if any?
“My brother told me that he had put his hand to her mouth but she had struggled,” Aviello testified. “He said he got the knife and stabbed her before they had run off. He said he had also smashed a window to simulate a break in.”
Aviello said his brother had hidden the knife, along with a set of keys his brother had used to enter the house. “Inside me I know that a miscarriage of justice has taken place,” he asserted. Consequently, Aviello had been in the same jail as Sollecito and had told him: “I believe in your innocence.”
Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/18/11 at 02:47 PM in The officially involved, The defenses, Evidence & Witnesses, Other witnesses, Trials 2008 & 2009, Appeals 2009-2015, Hellmann 2011+, Hoaxes Sollecito etc, 30 Alessi hoax
Comments
Any suprise that the defense would finally stoop to bringing out the usual scumbags who will say anything for money. Can’t wait to hear the spin of the FOA touting their credibility!
Posted by friar fudd on 06/18/11 at 03:30 PM | #
Hi Friar Fudd. Now it is reported that Alessi denied to Maresca in interrogation that he knew or had murdered the baby Tommaso Onifri. Seemingly he also denied that he is serving a life sentence.
This is becoming increasingly bizarre. If Alessi ever did have any credibility as a witness for Sollecito and Knox it is surely all gone after this. It will be interesting to see how the US media report it.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/18/11 at 03:41 PM | #
I wonder how much Curt Knox is paying this filth to take the stand. Interesting that Amanda is now calling upon the support of a convicted baby kiler to help try and get her off. It won’t happen however, this court will not believe this PACK OF LIES. Knox is guilty.
Posted by proud-american on 06/18/11 at 06:23 PM | #
Hi proud-american,
It’s been a disastrous day for Knox and Sollecito.
Convicted baby killer Mario Alessi said that he did not know Tommaso Onofri and he didn’t seem to be aware that he had been given a life sentence for his murder.
Another witness, the mafioso, flew into into a rage in the courtroom.
Rudy Guede is going to testify on 27 June and he could reveal specific information about Knox’s and Sollecito’s involvement in Meredith’s murder. His sentence can’t be increased and I think he will want to pay back Knox’s and Sollecito’s lawyers for trying to put the blame on him.
Stefano Conti and Carla Vecchiotti will present the findings of their review to the court on 30 June. I expect them to confirm the attribution of the DNA on the knife and bra clasp and rule out the possibility of contamination. I think they will also shed more light on whether Amanda Knox’s DNA was on Meredith’s bra clasp.
Posted by The Machine on 06/18/11 at 06:46 PM | #
@ The Machine
Thank you once again for shedding interesting and unbiased light on this tragic case. Your fair and balanced reporting of this case is marvellous. Keep up the good work!
Posted by proud-american on 06/18/11 at 08:23 PM | #
The US media is full of “Perhaps and Cautiously optimistic’s.” It mystifies me just where the thinking in Seattle is based. There are even those who claim that there is “Absolutely no evidence at all against Knox and Sollecito who are just kids.”
However, if I can use conjecture here perhaps I fill in a gap. This is how I believe it went down.
Knox wailing…....“What are we going to do?”
Sollecito (Still High) “Don’t worry my family is very wealthy and powerful and my sister is a cop.”
It was this in part that made Knox paint herself into a corner to which she contributed by accusing Patrick Lamumba.
Also remember her reaction upon being shown the knife when she shook and hit her head. This from someone who up until that moment had shown nothing but contempt for Meredith.
Sollecito’s reaction and comment upon the arrest of Guede when he said “I hope he doesn’t say strange things about me.” and this when supposedly at that time when he maintained he had never met Guede.
Of course this is just conjecture on my part but I would hasten to add not too far from the truth.
Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 06/18/11 at 09:03 PM | #
Finally to put this in perspective and after all the hysteria emanating from Seattle and elsewhere.
Americans for the most part intuit Amanda Knox as being one of them. (This of course is obvious.)
What isn’t so obvious is that Americans by-enlarge feel threatened by a perceived higher intelligence quotient world wide than their own. This is born out by (with the exception of degrees from Yale or Harvard universities.) with degrees granted by foreign universities which are given more credence than the locally produced variety. In the USA if you pay your money you get your degree that’s how it works.
Translate this on a personal level to Perugia and the current situation. It is my belief that it is just one more aspect of the jealousy that emanated from Knox to Meredith because Knox was faced with the prospect of not only being out classed by Meredith on every personal level but out intelligence’d as well.
In other words Knox was forced to confront the fact that Meredith was in a class to which Knox could never attain both intellectually and morally. Knox until that time at home in Seattle had it her own way and was able to dictate every situation either on intelligence terms or sexual terms. Therefore from a killing motive point of view her involvement is easy to realize. The psychology here is not unknown but very commonplace. let’s call it the “I’ll show her.” syndrome.
Of course Knox was the instigator while Sollecito was merely the dupe. Guede was just there trying to get what he could which is of course his pattern in life. As to the jail house snitches well they don’t count for anything other than comic relief sad really that the defense has to grasp at these straws knowing as they must that it is hopeless.
Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 06/19/11 at 03:48 AM | #
every cliche in the book comes to mind upon reading the various accounts of today in court. train wreck, doesn’t hold water, stinks to high heaven…whatever can the defense be thinking? surely they are desperate…
Posted by mojo on 06/19/11 at 12:24 PM | #
Hi Grahame,
I’m astonished by the stupidity of many of the journalists covering the case. A number of them saw Judge Hellman’s decision to allow an independent review of some of the DNA evidence as some major victory for the defence teams. I don’t think they are aware that a number of independent experts have already reviewed the DNA evidence and confirmed Dr. Stefanoni’s findings.
When Stefano Conti and Carla Vecchiotti were unable to perform any DNA tests, Elizabeth Vargas and Nick Pisa were under under the false impression that there had been new tests which showed there was no incriminating DNA evidence. Nick Pisa erroneously reported that there was going to be a full review of the DNA evidence:
“Amanda Knox won a victory in court today when she was granted a full review of crucial DNA evidence used to convict her of Meredith Kercher’s murder.”
Knox’s and Sollecito’s appeals don’t hinge on Guede’s testimony on 27 June or the findings of the independent experts. So many journalists completely ignore the other evidence that also led to Knox’s and Sollecito’s convictions: the mixed blood evidence, Sollecito’s bloody footprint on the blue bathmat, Knox’s and Sollecito’s bare bloody footprints which were revealed by Luminol, the three traces of Meredith’s blood in Knox’s room, the mobile phone and computer records that provide irrefutable proof that Knox and Sollecito lied, Knox’s telephone calls and conversations with Filomena on 2 November 2007, Knox’s false and malicious accusation against Diya Lumumba which she didn’t retract the whole time he was in prison, the staged break-in, the testimony of Nara Capezzali and Marco Qunitavalle and the testimony of countless forensic experts who testified that more than one person killed Meredith
Sky News and Five News presenter Gemma Morris tweeted the following: https://twitter.com/#!/SkyGemma
“getting set for C5 news today… fascinated by the latest twist in the Amanda #Knox trial”
There was no twist in the case yesterday. Mario Alessi’s and Luciano Aviello’s accounts of what happened on the night of the murder contradict each other and they have both lied repeatedly in the past.
Posted by The Machine on 06/19/11 at 05:25 PM | #
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