Trial: UK’s Sky News Reports On The Events On Saturday

Comments

Another good report is in the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/08/kercher-trial-knox

Some interesting points from Saturday’s testimony:

- The relationship between Amanda and Meredith deteriorated over time.
- AK said she took a shower even though there was blood in the bathroom, the door of house was open, there was evidence of break-in
- Filomena says that when she got to the house the washing machine was warm, and the clothes inside it mostly belonged to Meredith.
- Filomena says that after the door was kicked down the officer entered the room and raised the duvet over the body. The officer denies that he entered the room. This helps the defence in their argument about DNA contamination.

I’ve just watched Amanda’s father on The Early Show with Erica Hill. She asked what it was like listening to testimony about Amanda’s reaction when the body was found. He said it was challenging, and then went on to say that Amanda’s reaction was crying and trembling…..did anyone testify to that????

Yeah there was apparently one brief mention yesterday that AK cried for a moment at the scene - Filomena said the opposite of course, that the lack of reaction by AK was very odd, or words to that effect.

We have heard that Filomena’s attitude on the stand yesterday exuded a distinct frostiness toward AK throughout, which some of the jury presumably picked up on. Filomena should be back when the events of the next several days become the focus of the trial.

The controversy about whether Michele Battistelli entered Meredith’s room or not is a red herring. Meredith’s bra clasp was found under a pillow on November 2nd, which means that he could not have contaminated the bra clasp with Sollecito’s or Knox’s DNA.

Patrizia Stefanoni and Dr. Renato Biondo have already categorically excluded the possibilty that any of the forensic evidence was contaminated. This is one of the reasons why Judge Paolo Micheli concluded that Knox and Sollecito removed Meredith’s bra after she was murdered.

Bucket of tea wrote:

“I’ve just watched Amanda’s father on The Early Show with Erica Hill. She asked what it was like listening to testimony about Amanda’s reaction when the body was found. He said it was challenging…”

It must have been particularly challenging given that he has opted not to have an interpreter to assist him. What can he possibly have understood? Maybe that’s why the ABC article which appeared after Friday’s hearing focused on “emotions” rather than the content of oral testimony.

I’m new to the site and am interested in the case since I lived in Italy for 10 yrs and have seen many situations where foreign (especially girl) students get into situations which could have had these tragic results.

Can anyone point me to a copy of the 106 page summary ?. I am happy to translate. An english journalist has read it, so presumably it is in the public domain ?

Does anyone know how Merediths’s door was locked from the inside? Was there a key on the inside of the door? Was a key found ?. How did the murder(s) lock the door before escaping?

Rather than a sex game gone wrong, seems more likely to have started with a fight between Meredith and Amanda ... Meredith accuses Amanda of stealing her rent money or Amanda accuses Meredith of ‘stealing’ her job, Raffeale joins in on Amanda’s side, rudy rushes from the bathroom to ‘help’  .... it all gets out of control.

Many are now drawn to the case who did not know about it before. I came to it in June from the one other crime blog I have followed (Durham in Wonderland) which showed how powerful blogs can be for truth when media head off in a herd in a single direction without checking.

We have an open mind as to what happened on the night but the idea that the four of them were in the house on peaceful business and somehow things suddenly went haywire seems to be a fading view now and the Micheli report (there are two summaries in English in Brian’s recent posts) discounts it. But sex game in the sense that this was just a game or a ritual has even less supporters.

You will find many passages of the Micheli report, a public document, in Italian and English over on the Perugia Murder File forum and they might be pretty pleased here at the kind offer of translation help. That forum in several iterations has been generating several dozen questioning and informed comments daily for over a year now.

Well, having read the original report (thanks again Hans-Georg) I’d just like to say:

1. Refreshing to read facts and well reasoned thinking after reading all the media garbage.

2. Rudy eventually says:

Amanda present at scene…. hears her responding to Meredith saying ‘We’ve got to talk’ (about stolen rent money). Also sees her leave house from Filomena’s window.

Presents a ‘virtual identikit’ of Raffaele (judges words) at house, high checkbones, bit smaller than Rudy, same kind of age as RG, italian accent ...not from North Italy or Perugia (i.e. from south .... Raffaele is from Bari), even brand of clothing. Says knifeman is left handed ... anyone know if RS is left handed?. Not wearing glasses though.

When asked by his buddy during telephone conversation whether Raffaele did it, says ‘I don’t know .... I think so’ .. says ‘I think so’ more than once.

I wouldn’t be suprised if the trial is over very quickly, presumably Rudy would get his sentence reduced if he went one step further and came clean. It looks like RS and AK are going to blame each other for the fatal blow.

I’m still puzzled about how Merideth’s door was locked from the inside. the report seems to just talk about blood on the handle.

Finally, just like to say that I found myself stopping after every 10 or 15 pages, jolted by the thought that this is a human being you are reading about ...  enduring an horrific and senselss attack.

Locked door; just seen a ‘scene of crime’ video posted on youtube in last few days. Shows the inside of Meredith’s door with blood on the handle (wonder who’s DNA is mixed in with that?).

Door has a simle mortice lock that you get on internal doors all over Europe. Usually the key from any door will work in any other, they are so simple ... presumably there was not even a need to kick the door in. Anyway, locks from both sides of door, so doesn’t help much.

Wish I could lip read what AK says to RS before kissing him in the famous film shot outside the house

Hi Kevin, you are raising a good point here. Unless the landlord had each lock changed and fitted individually, which is still possible, any other key could have been used - in my Italian apartment, I only need one key to lock/unlock all doors - hence, no need for Sollecito to kick it in. I would expect Sollecito and Knox to at least try to use her key to unlock the door. But it doesn’t look like they did.

Nicki, forenics report talks about an ‘escalation’
of violence several times. Looks like amanda had her hand in Meredith’s face, maybe with a knife in the other hand. Raffaele holding Meredith on one side, with Rudy holding the other whilst’interfering’ with her with his other hand.

Rings true if it started with a fight between Amanda and Meredith, RS threatens Meredith with his knife (which he always carried) Rudy helps hold her down ... but also takes advantage to molest her.

Judge also thinks it was not premediated, but that begs the question of why Amanda had taken a knife from RS’s appartment.

Maybe, RS had previously told her that he always carried a knife for protection, so she does the same.

After hearing that Amanda was effectively fired (20:20) I think they went to the cottage to ‘have it out with Meredith’ otherwise, why not stay at the boyfriends appartment (like the other girls). They didn’t particulary get on with her.

It is interesting to read you Kevin now that you have read Micheli in the raw and in Italian.

One point about the knife. It was a rather huge knife and you can see an image of it here. Machine did the post and Kermit did the graphic with the rule.

And one point about premeditation. I think many incline to the notion that no actual murder was premeditated.

But the fact that the cellphones of AK and RS were simultaneously turned off up at RS’s place suggests they did not want to be triangulated via the mobile-phone transponders down at Meredith’s place.

That suggests they headed down to Meredith’s with intent.

Guede of course didn’t have a cellphone - he had it confiscated when in previous police trouble. That musta hurt the business… more house-calls required.

Peter, that is true, turning off the phones is one of the 2 very strange things I can’t figure out, the other being the bomb hoax, which has apparently been cleared up, but without which RS and AK would had have all day to complete the ‘clean up’ ... if they were not interupted (which is the prosecution theory).

With all the evidence, why have RS and AK not come clean ?. I believe that the lawyers are wheeling and dealing behind the scenes

A very interesting development is that Raffeale’s family are now being investigated because of their (intercepted) telephone converstations where the father and sister (who works for the carabinere) discuss whether their expensive lawyer can use any political clout on their behalf; a very Italian, especially southern Italian ‘solution’. Guede, of course, has only a couple of court appointed local lawyers. Amanda’s lawyers have their hands full,  stopping her ‘supporters’ from coming out with counter-productive slander and libel of the prosecutor

Incidentally, it was established that Rudy wore Nike, breakout 2, size 11 shoes, he finally admitted that and the empty box was found at his house. He says he threw the shoes away in Germany. These match one of the sportshoe footprints at the scene (the other matches RS’s) ... maybe that helps with the PP presentation.

How come there isn’t more DNA evidence if they had their hands on/over Meredith like that? Apart from Guede, of course. Did they clean up and if so, how?

It doesn’t seem as though the Meredith’s bedroom was cleaned up so much.

As Peter says, the evidence we know about is only the tip of the iceberg ... i.e. just enough to convict RG and show that others were involved.

I think we’ll see much more DNA evidence presented during the trial.

Where next:

Or to next entry Trial: Highlights Of The Testimony On 6 February And 7 February

Or to previous entry Trial: Friday Afternoon Testimony On The Apparently Faked Break-In