The Murder of Meredith Kercher (12 page)

O
n Tuesday, September 9, 2008, a week before the scheduled preliminary hearing to decide if there was sufficient evidence to bring the three murder suspects to trial, Rudy Guede, in a surprise move through his lawyer, asked for a ‘fast track’ trial instead. According to attorneys Valter Biscotti and Nicodemo Gentile, the request was made because they, along with Guede, feared that a pact had been made between Amanda and Raffaele against their client.

‘We feel the urgent need to have our trial heard independently of the other two suspects,’ Biscotti said. ‘In recent weeks a lot of poison has been spread by the defence teams and we feel the necessity to find some form of serenity in a separate hearing. That’s why we have asked for a fast-track hearing just for our client, and we want that hearing as quickly as possible. At this hearing we will prove that our client has 
absolutely nothing to do with the tragic death of Meredith Kercher.’

According to Italian law, in a fast-track trial or hearing, no witnesses are called to testify and the evidence is presented by admitting documentation. The entire proceeding is conducted behind closed doors before a single judge who determines whether a defendant is innocent or guilty. A defendant who chooses this option is typically given one-third off of any sentence if found guilty.

‘We have studied the evidence and there is no link between our client and the weapon found and which is said to be compatible with the wounds on Meredith Kercher,’ Gentile said. ‘It is up to the prosecution to prove that our client is guilty of murder, and in this case there is no evidence to back that up and there is the real risk of an innocent man being convicted.’

Biscotti released a letter that Guede had written from prison in which he again professed his innocence and said the only thing he was guilty of was not saving Meredith’s life. He claimed the man he later identified as Raffaele, who had been rushing to leave the scene, had shouted at him in Italian, ‘Black man found, black man guilty’ – another reason he was opting for a
fast-track
trial.

‘I can’t find peace with myself because I am guilty of not doing what should have been done to save her, and I pray to God that justice will be had for her,’ an excerpt from Guede’s letter stated. ‘It’s easier for them 
to point the finger at me than at themselves because in their world that is what comes naturally rather than admitting your responsibilities… too many lies have been said about me, lies from certain individuals that make it clear to me that they want things hidden, they don’t want things to come out… I have been described as a drug dealer and a drug addict and ask myself what the next thing I will be accused of is. Terrorism?’

The main pre-trial hearing began the following Tuesday, September 16, and would run more than a month before a decision would be made on whether or not to bring the suspects to trial or not. Meredith’s parents, along with her sister, Stephanie, returned to Perugia to attend portions of the hearing. It would be the first time that they would encounter all three suspects together at one time. Before the hearing got underway, Stephanie gave reporters another statement about her sister.

‘Each time that we arrive in Perugia,’ she said, ‘we wish it was for a different reason. It is so easy to understand why Meredith chose this beautiful city. She loved everything about Italy, but the fact that she chose Perugia over other cities shows how important the year abroad was for her. We only wish she’d had more time before she was brutally taken from us. We are pleased that we have reached a new phase in the process, hoping that justice will soon be done for Meredith.’

Defence lawyers and those critical of the handling 
of the investigation had charged that to date the murder weapon had not been found, no real motive for the crime had been established, and none of the three suspects confessed to killing Meredith. Instead, the critics said, the police and the prosecution based their case on DNA evidence found at the crime scene, and the fact that Amanda and Raffaele had repeatedly changed their accounts of what happened that night.

At the hearing, which was the first time she had been seen in public for nearly a year, Amanda entered the courtroom dressed in a white blouse and jeans, flanked by two female prison guards, and reflected no emotion. Raffaele was noticeably absent, and it was said that he was feeling poorly and could not attend. Early in the proceedings, Amanda, in what seemed like a spontaneous decision, stood up and addressed the court.

‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘I just want to say I am innocent. I didn’t murder my friend, Meredith.’

Outside the courtroom Meredith’s mother Arline was noticeably upset, and Detective Monica Napoleone, in charge of the murder squad, assisted her inside, where she was joined by her husband, John, and daughter, Stephanie. It seemed obvious throughout the day that Amanda was deliberately avoiding making eye contact with Meredith’s family, as pointed out by Napoleone in remarks later.

‘All the family was very brave and composed,’ Napoleone said. ‘They spent a long time looking 
straight at Knox, but she never once met their gaze.’

Much of the first day of the hearing was taken up with formalities, mainly legal, and by the end it did not seem that a lot had been accomplished. Shortly after that first day, hearing dates were scheduled to be held on Fridays and Saturdays, a common practice in Italy to help even out the caseloads of everyone involved, even though it took considerably longer to move the case along. Meanwhile, Guede’s fast-track trial was approved, and it would be held in conjunction with the main hearing before Judge Micheli.

As one day followed another and September turned into October, the Kercher family’s lawyer, Francesco Maresca, at one point requested that they be considered for damages if any of the three defendants were found guilty, a common practice under Italian law that would result in as much as £700,000 being awarded.

‘We will argue that this was a particularly violent crime and that all three were present and responsible for her death,’ Maresca said. ‘As part of the argument we will also be making a claim for financial compensation to be paid by the defendants to Meredith’s family for the suffering they have gone through. At this stage I am not prepared to say what that figure is. It can be anything from one euro to a hundred million euro, but I am not going to say anything before the case.’

At another point during the lengthy hearing, the prosecutor, Mignini, told Judge Paolo Micheli that 
Meredith was murdered and that the suspects had made her death look like a burglary. He also accused Amanda of wielding the knife, and said that both Raffaele and Guede had played major parts in the murder.

‘Knox held the knife and stabbed poor Meredith while the others held her down,’ Mignini said. ‘Sollecito had a knife on him, but he didn’t use it. At the same time, Guede strangled her and also tried to sexually assault her.’

Amanda’s lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, however, disagreed. ‘This reconstruction is a huge fantasy,’ Ghirga said. ‘There is no proof.’ Brusco, Raffaele’s lawyer, added that Mignini’s version of events was a ‘fine fairytale’.

It was also shown during the hearing that Meredith had 47 separate wounds to her body. In addition to three wounds to her throat, she had cuts and bruises on her hands and face. The prosecution argued that some of the wounds had occurred as she attempted to defend herself. Mignini pointed out that he believed Amanda was the prime suspect because Meredith’s body had been ‘covered by a duvet, and only a woman would want to cover another naked woman’s body.’

On the other hand, Amanda’s lawyers said that there was ‘not one shred of evidence’ that linked her to Meredith’s murder, and argued that the evidence against her was ‘insufficient and contradictory’. They also said that the knife police believed to be the murder weapon was the wrong size and did not match 
the evidence, such as the stain of a knife’s image left in blood on one of the bed sheets.

Later, outside the courtroom during one of the breaks, the Kercher family lawyer said that he had ultimately asked for £20 million in damages from the three suspects if they are convicted, and outlined his reasons for asking for that amount.

‘Poor Meredith suffered a painful, slow death,’ Maresca said. ‘She was dying… and went through a horrific ordeal. The three had no option but to kill her. Once they had started they could not turn back. They had to kill her because otherwise she would have gone to the police and told them about what had happened in the house… those bruises and wounds on Meredith’s body are a sign of what she went through. She was virtually tortured before being killed in the end because of what had started as an erotic game… I have spoken with the Kercher family and they are being kept constantly informed about what is happening. They just want justice to be done, for Meredith and the truth.’

Back inside the courtroom, Amanda’s lawyers stated that the knife blade that had caused the fatal wound was not as large as prosecutors had contended, and argued that the DNA found on the blade implicating Amanda was so small that it was insignificant.

‘As far as we’re concerned,’ Ghirga said, ‘Amanda Knox was not at the scene and was not responsible for 
Meredith’s murder. For us there was one aggressor, but I am not going to say who that was.’

Another lawyer on Amanda’s legal team, Carlo Dalla Vedova, told the judge, as well as reporters later, that the evidence against Amanda was contradictory and insignificant.

‘That is why we have asked… not to continue with this case against our client,’ Dalla Vedova said to reporters. ‘There is not enough proof for Amanda Knox to be sent for a full trial. She has made no confession. We are hopeful that the judge will accept this decision. Amanda did not speak at this hearing, but she is very stressed out by all these events. She did not kill Meredith – she was her friend. She is hopeful that the legal system will see this and she will be released.’

In Guede’s fast-track trial, lawyers told the judge that their client did not know Amanda and Raffaele at the time of the murder, and that he was not at Meredith’s cottage that night to ‘rob, rape and kill her’, as he had been accused. Instead, he was there ‘to court her’. That, of course, was contradictory to what the Albanian witness had told police much earlier, namely that he had seen Amanda, Raffaele and Guede together outside the cottage on the night before Meredith was killed.

Guede’s lawyers also again pointed out that ‘the accusations are to be expected because he is an easy target. But he has never changed his story while the other two have.’ 

Of course, most of the facts – if not all – as they had been so far explored were examined at length during the hearing. When Mignini summed up his case, however, he emphasized the discovery of the violent Japanese
manga
comic books found in Raffaele’s flat and pointed out that they depicted the murder ‘of female vampires on Halloween night,’ showing naked women lying dead on the floor with blood on the walls. He added that the depictions were chillingly similar to what police officers saw when they found Meredith’s body. Mignini also said that he believed that the trio of suspects had intended to murder Meredith on Halloween night – 24 hours before she was murdered – but for reasons not known had put it off until the following night. The prosecutor said that Meredith and her friends had gone to a party on Halloween night dressed as vampires.

By the end of Mignini’s summation he had asked that Guede be sentenced to life in prison at his
fast-track
trial, if granted, and that Amanda and Raffaele be sent for full trial.

Judge Micheli granted Mignini’s request to send Amanda and Raffaele to full trial on charges of murder and sexual assault. He also convicted Guede that same day of murder and sexual assault, and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Guede appealed asgainst his conviction and, on 22nd December 2009, his sentence was cut to 16 years.

Amanda and her parents became emotional when 
Judge Micheli had announced his decisions. They had been convinced that Amanda would be freed from custody at the conclusion of the pre-trial hearing and cried when they realized that had not happened.

‘I spent a lot of time crying last night,’ Edda Mellas said on a U.S. television news programme. ‘I just worry about her and the toll this is all going to take on her, on her life… Amanda’s lawyers told her that this is what happens with most Italian pre-trials – there are very few that are totally dismissed, and they continued to tell her, “You’re innocent. We will have to go to court but you will be found innocent.” I don’t fear that they are going to find her guilty. There’s no evidence, no motive, nothing.’

‘We had high hopes that the evidence brought forth would be enough to allow this case to be dismissed,’ Amanda’s father said. ‘We are very disappointed… Amanda is anything but the type of personality that they are portraying for this whole scenario. She is 180 degrees different than the type of person that would get into a position that they are describing.’

Mignini, of course, was pleased with Judge Micheli’s decisions, particularly Guede’s conviction. Mignini remained convinced, however, that Guede could not have acted alone.

At the time of writing, Guede is appealing his conviction.

D
uring Rudy Guede’s fast-track trial and afterwards, as Amanda and Raffaele along with their lawyers prepared for the start of their trial, which was expected to run for about a year, there was renewed public interest in the sex life of ‘Foxy Knoxy’, as Amanda was nicknamed – in part because the reading public seemingly had not yet had enough of it.
Daily Mail
reporter Nick Pisa, who had followed the case closely from its outset, revealed that a number of conversations between Amanda and her parents had been leaked to the press. During those conversations Amanda, who shared a cell with a woman named Rosa, a convicted murderer, told her parents that her cellmate begged her for sex. The conversations between Amanda and her parents were taped by prison officials who had placed a recording bug in the visiting room. Amanda said that Rosa ‘whispered to me one night if I would like to have sex with her.’

‘It’s because I’m pretty and they all like me,’ Amanda added.

Amanda also told her parents that Rosa was serving a 25-year sentence on the murder conviction, but that Amanda thinks ‘she is innocent’. She also said that there were a number of Nigerian prostitutes in her area of the prison who ‘are actually quite nice’. She said that she helped Rosa clean their cell, and complained that it had resulted in rough chapped hands and broken fingernails.

‘Rosa makes me clean the cell the whole time,’ she said. ‘She is a fanatic. She spends the whole day cleaning and scrubbing and she makes me do it as well.’

Around the middle of November 2008 a new twist in the case occurred – witnesses, previously unknown to prosecutors and police, began to come forward. The first claimed he saw Amanda shopping in the cleaning section of a convenience store, located near Raffaele’s flat, a few hours before Meredith’s body was discovered. The purported sighting had occurred during the time-frame that Amanda had claimed to have been at Raffaele’s flat. The witness provided his statement to prosecutors Giuliano Mignini and Manuela Comodi, after which details appeared in the local newspaper
Giornale dell’Umbria
.

The statement seemed to support evidence recovered by detectives from Raffaele’s apartment during a search after the murder, including a receipt from the store where the witness said that he had seen 
Amanda. The detectives had also found a bleach bottle and cloths under a sink at the flat, which they believe were used to clean a knife or knives, as well as the murder scene itself.

‘That morning I saw Amanda at 7.45,’ the witness said. ‘She was wearing a grey hooded jacket, zipped up to the top, jeans and a grey-blue scarf which was wrapped around her face. She also wore a
light-coloured
hat. I know it was her. I had seen her in the Corso Garibaldi. I know Sollecito by sight and in the days before the murder I saw the American girl with him.’ Corso Garibaldi is the name of the street where Raffaele’s flat was located.

‘I had looked at them closely because I always used to see Sollecito on his own,’ the witness added. ‘That’s why it struck me… I recognized Amanda Knox from the photographs in the newspapers and on the TV. I told some friends that the day the body was found she was out shopping early in the morning.’

Although it was not clear why the witness, whose name was not immediately released, had waited so long to come forward with the information, he told the prosecutors that he thought it had been ‘very strange’ for a student to be out so early in the day.

‘She was also acting very strange,’ the witness said. ‘That morning was virtually a holiday, as there were no lectures. If there had been, I could understand her being up so early. She was acting suspiciously. She had covered her face – that’s why I couldn’t get a good 
look at it. It was as if she didn’t want to be recognized. She didn’t say hello and she didn’t look me in the eye.’

The witness described Amanda as being about 1.65 metres tall, with light-coloured eyes. Although he did not know whether she had actually purchased anything from the store, he said that he saw her go ‘to the section of the shop that sells cleaning products.’

Although Amanda’s lawyers were unavailable for comment after news of the witness surfaced, Kercher family lawyer Francesco Maresca said that he had heard about it. ‘What he has to say appears to be very significant,’ Maresca said. ‘It puts Knox out much earlier than she claimed to the police and is very important to the case.’

A few days later another witness, a 40-year-old man, came forward and reported having seen Amanda, Raffaele, and Rudy Guede together on October 30, 2007, two days before Meredith was killed. The new evidence again challenged Amanda and Raffaele’s statements in which they had claimed they did not know Rudy Guede.

Before the month had ended, yet another witness told authorities of having seen a cut or scratch on Amanda’s neck shortly after Meredith’s body had been discovered. This latest witness was Laura Mezzetti, one of Amanda and Meredith’s flatmates, who said she noticed the cut when she and Amanda were discussing the tragedy. Mezzetti had not mentioned the cut during initial interviews with police, but the 
information came out when she was called in and questioned again.

The police and prosecutors had also evidently missed seeing the purported cut. After Mezzetti’s latest statement, Mignini asked to see the medical records of Amanda’s examination at the time of her arrest. He wanted to see if the cut had been noted.

‘The flatmate’s recollection of the scratch on Amanda Knox’s throat is very significant,’ said a source from the prosecutor’s office. ‘Was it there as a result of attempts by Meredith to defend herself? The flatmate did not mention it at the time because she did not think it was important and she remembered it recently and, as a result, mentioned it to the prosecution. Medical evidence from the time is being examined to see if there was any mention of this scratch on Knox’s neck.’

Another witness interviewed during the latest round of questioning as the prosecution prepared its witness list for the court was Amy Frost, a British student also studying in Perugia and Meredith’s best friend. She provided an interesting, if not suspicious, account of her encounter with Raffaele at the police station while they and a number of other people waited to be questioned by detectives. She said that he had simply approached and began talking about his and Amanda’s activities during the time-frame when Meredith was believed killed.

‘He came up to me and said, “I am Raffaele, 
Amanda’s boyfriend”,’ Frost related. ‘“Amanda was at my house last night with me. She didn’t leave until 10.30 this morning. When she got back she found the apartment with the door open.” He just carried on without me asking him anything.’

Just about everyone associated with the case knew that there would be a multitude of books about it rushing to press. Most assumed the books would be published after the trial. However, to many people’s surprise, the first book hit bookstore shelves before the end of November 2008. It was called
Amanda and the Others
, and was written by Fiorenza Sarzanini, described as one of Italy’s leading crime journalists. Sarzanini portrayed Amanda as a young woman for whom sex was a main ingredient of her life. Some of the information about Amanda’s sex life was taken from her diary.

‘Knox isn’t obsessed with sex, but she sees it as one of the predominant aspects of her life,’ Sarzanini said during an interview with the British newspaper the
The Sunday Times
. ‘This has influenced her life in the sense that it influences her relationships with both men and women.’

Sarzanini’s book named four men in Seattle and New York, and three in Florence and Perugia, with whom Amanda had had sex.

‘It’s as if [Knox] was always hunting men,’ Sarzanini said. ‘You list your conquests as if you were displaying them like trophies.’

In one section of the book Sarzanini wrote about the day Amanda arrived at the cottage in Perugia, and quoted testimony that Amy Frost, Meredith’s friend, had given to police.

‘Meredith told us that Amanda put down in the bathroom a beauty case in which there were condoms and a vibrator,’ Frost had said. ‘They were visible and it seemed a bit strange to Meredith.’ Meredith later told Frost, ‘Isn’t it odd that a girl arrives and the first thing she shows is a vibrator?’

Sarzanini also wrote about how Frost had noticed tension between Meredith and Amanda when Meredith told her how one of the guys living in the lower half of the cottage, Giacomo Silenzi, fancied her. Amanda purportedly replied that she liked Giacomo, too, but that Meredith could have him. Frost said that Amanda’s remark had upset her, but she had gone on to start a relationship with the young man anyway.

Another segment of the book claimed that Amanda wanted to write a song about Meredith’s murder, right after Meredith’s body had been found.

‘So I am at the police station after a long day in which I describe how I was the first person to arrive home and find my flatmate dead,’ read an excerpt from Amanda’s diary. ‘The strange thing is after all that has happened, I want to write a song about all this. It would be the first song I have written and would speak about how someone died in a horrible way and for no reason.’

Amanda also wrote that she was ‘feeling so hungry I could murder a pizza… How morbid is all that? I’m dying of hunger. I really want to say that I could murder a pizza but that doesn’t seem right. Laura and Filomena are really upset. I’m angry. At the beginning I was shocked, then sad, then confused, now I’m really angry. I don’t know. I never saw her body and I never saw her blood so it’s as if it hasn’t happened. But it did happen, right in the room next to mine. There was blood in the bathroom where this morning I took a shower.’

These and other excerpts from the book were published in the magazine supplement of
Corriere Della Sera
, a leading daily Italian newspaper where Sarzanini also worked. Its cover consisted of a digitally enhanced photo of Amanda that had been designed to depict her as cold and calculating, with a caption below it which read: ‘Amanda’s Nights. Alcohol, Drugs and Sex.’

Amanda’s parents were of course outraged over the revelations contained in the book, as well as the article about it, as were many of the murder suspect’s other supporters, and said that it was unfortunate that Amanda’s private and personal property had been made public in a book.

‘We have not seen the source of the information and have no way to judge its authenticity, whether information has been quoted accurately, whether it exists at all, and whether or not it is being reported in proper context,’ Curt Knox and Edda Mellas said in a 
statement released to the news media. ‘This seems to be yet another example of the continued leaks of information designed to harm Amanda’s character, as there is no evidence to tie her to the brutal and senseless murder of Meredith Kercher. She is innocent.’

Although the trial had been scheduled to begin in early December 2008, it was delayed until
mid-January
2009 to allow officials additional time to prepare their documentation. In the meantime, Amanda moved to have her case thrown out after learning about Sarzanini’s book, claiming that it had damaged her chance of getting a fair trial. The book had been a bestseller in Italy and had been serialized in the
Corriere Della Sera
and had, therefore, been read by a large number of people, and it reportedly had been a very popular Christmas 2008 gift. In addition to wanting the case against her dismissed, Amanda wanted £500,000 in damages. Amanda had also filed a request through her lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, with the Milan Civil Court that the book be seized.

‘There is no doubt that this book will have an impact on my client’s trial,’ Dalla Vedova said. ‘That is why we have made this request and also claimed damages.’

As she defended her book, Sarzanini said that she had relied on excerpts from Amanda’s diary which had been seized by the police after her arrest a year earlier. Sarzanini said that the diary was part of the evidence against Amanda, and that the sexual elements her 
book contained had been established already in earlier judicial proceedings.

‘In my book I used the diary written by Amanda Knox herself and which is now part of the evidence in the trial against her,’ Sarzanini said. ‘I don’t understand how the fact that I have retold her own words in a book can have a negative influence on her trial.’

Meanwhile, Kercher family lawyer Francesco Maresca announced that he was requesting that the trial be held behind closed doors. ‘This is something I have discussed with the family of poor Meredith,’ Maresca said. ‘We are talking about a sex crime and we don’t want to turn it into some morbid spectacle. During the hearings last month we had more than 200 journalists and if we have that many again at the trial it will be chaos. I will be requesting that just three or four at the most are present on a rotation basis. The final decision will be up to the judge, but I want to try and avoid cameras and photographers pointing at Meredith’s family who will be in court for the trial.’