The Murder of Meredith Kercher (14 page)

Mrs Kercher became visibly moved when asked to recall her final telephone conversation with Meredith. She said that they spoke by phone every day, mainly to discuss Meredith’s plans for her next return to England. The last time had been on the afternoon of November 1, only hours before she was murdered.

‘She rang to let me know when she was coming back,’ she testified. ‘She said she was really tired because they had been out for Halloween the night before and they had come back very late and she was
going to see some friends to see a film. But she was coming back early – she had an essay to finish.’

She explained that Meredith had lectures to attend at the university the following morning, and exams were fast approaching. Describing her daughter as a ‘hard working’ student, she said that Meredith had never expressed any fears or concerns about her life in Perugia, but had often talked of how much she loved it there. She said that Meredith had chosen Perugia because it was ‘small’, had ‘good airport links’, and because she loved its chocolate festival held in the autumn.

A week later, during the trial’s next Friday-Saturday session, Amanda would take the witness stand to testify for the first time in her murder trial. On Friday, June 12, she told the court about her seven lovers and how she had been led to believe that she was HIVpositive, and how being told that she might have AIDS had scared her.

‘They told me it was positive and they said I had AIDS,’ she testified. ‘I was left shocked. I didn’t know how that could be possible. They told me to think about it hard and so I wrote in my diary about all the partners I’d had.’

‘How many partners did you have?’ asked Dalla Vedova, her attorney.

‘Seven,’ she replied. ‘I was going through them and saying ‘I made love to him, well he can’t have it and he can’t have it’… I was really worried.
Mamma mia
, I was crying. I thought I was going to die and not be
able to have any children. They took the test three times over two weeks and I was under so much pressure because I thought I had AIDS.’

At one point she described how a doctor had found a mark on her neck during her in-processing medical examination after being arrested. As she spoke, a large cold sore was visible on the outside of her upper lip.

‘It was a hickey,’ she said. ‘A love bite from Raffaele.’

When asked why she had blamed Patrick Lumumba for Meredith’s murder, Amanda explained that she had felt pressured by the police and claimed that she had been beaten by officers prior to making false statements against her will. Lumumba was in the packed courtroom watching the proceedings.

‘I was confused,’ she added. ‘The declarations were taken against my will, so everything I said was said in a state of confusion and under pressure.’

She said that the police had struck her twice on the back of her head during the interrogation.

‘All the police were in the room,’ she said. ‘There were some behind me, some in front, and one of them shouted, “You don’t remember?” then a policewoman behind me hit me across the back of the head. They called me a stupid liar and they said that I was trying to protect someone. But I was not trying to protect anyone. I didn’t know how to respond to them. I was very, very scared because they were treating me so badly and I didn’t understand why.’

She said that at one point during the interrogation a police officer confronted her with a text message that she had sent to Lumumba that said, ‘See you later,’ and held it in front of her face while demanding: ‘Look, look at this message. You were going to meet someone.’

‘I could not understand why they were so sure that I knew everything,’ she continued. ‘So in my confusion I started to imagine that maybe I was traumatized. They were suggesting a path to me – under pressure I imagined a lot of different things.’

When asked why she had performed splits and cartwheels at the police station, she responded that it had been her way of relaxing and ‘lightening’ the situation. When asked to describe the night of the murder, she said that she had seen Meredith that afternoon at the cottage.

‘She left her room, said ‘bye,’ and walked out the door,’ Amanda said. ‘That was the last time I saw her.’ That night, she said, she smoked a marijuana joint, had sex with Raffaele at his flat, and fell asleep afterwards.

Wearing jeans and a white blouse, Amanda Knox took the witness stand again the next day, and again spoke of the verbal and physical bullying she claimed police officers had subjected her to during long hours of interrogation.

‘The police officers interrogating me said they would put me in prison for 30 years for being a liar,’ she said. Cross-examined by prosecutors, she said that a ‘crescendo’ of police badgering and pressure had
caused her to wrongly name an innocent man, and again talked of how a policewoman had struck her on the back of the head during questioning.

‘It was always a crescendo,’ she told Mignini about her early interrogation sessions. ‘When I said I was with Raffaele all the time, they told me I was a liar. I was scared. I thought, maybe they are right.’

She said that her interrogators kept telling her that they ‘wanted a name,’ and that was when the policewoman would hit her twice on the head. She said that it was the pressure from the police that caused her to give them Lumumba’s name.

‘It didn’t hurt,’ she said of the policewoman striking her head. ‘But it frightened me.’

L
ater in the month of June 2009, Amanda’s mother, Edda Mellas, testified that her daughter and Meredith Kercher ‘got on great’ and said that there had been no problems between the two, a contradiction of sorts to what other witnesses had said throughout the investigation and in court. During two hours of sometimes emotional testimony, with the help of an interpreter, Mellas said that Amanda had never even considered leaving Italy to return to the U.S. after the murder because she wanted to remain there to ‘help the authorities and continue her studies’.

‘They got along great,’ Mellas said. ‘Amanda told me about the fun things she and Meredith did.’

Although Mellas did not elaborate about the ‘fun things’, she went on to testify about three phone calls she received from Amanda on November 2, 2007, the morning Meredith’s body was found.

‘In her first call, she said she thought somebody was in the house,’ Mellas said, adding that the second and third calls were made after Meredith’s body had been found. ‘She was very upset. It was very disturbing.’

Two weeks later, at trial sessions in early July, Professor Carlo Torre, a leading forensic expert, testified on behalf of the defence about two knives the police said were used in the murder. Using a mannequin head, Torre showed the court how the wounds found on Meredith’s neck were incompatible with a 30 cm knife which the police said had been found in Raffaele’s flat. The media and the public were asked to leave during part of Torre’s testimony because graphic photos of Meredith’s body were used and shown to the court.

‘Examining the blade found, and the wounds, it is clear that it [the knife blade] is incompatible,’ Torre said. ‘It is my opinion that the blade that caused the wounds to the victim’s neck was much shorter, probably around 8 centimetres, and that it was no more than a centimetre wide. The knife went in and out of the wounds, once, twice, three times, in a sawing motion.’

Professor Torre also pointed out that Meredith’s hyoid bone, a small bone in the neck, had been broken after considerable pressure had been applied to it – an indication of strangulation. Torre, who examined the video made of the crime scene, the video of the
autopsy on Meredith’s body, and the accompanying pathologist’s notes, said that there was ‘nothing to make me think that more than one person was involved… there are no elements or traces to suggest anyone else was involved.’

Torre talked about blood splatter on Meredith’s chest, and said that she was not wearing a bra. He said the blood spots were compatible with having been ‘breathed out’ as she died. He said that the bruises found on her body did not necessarily indicate that she had been held down during the attack, but had been caused by her thrashing around, ‘bashing and knocking’ into the floor and the furniture.

Following a lengthy summer break of approximately two months, Amanda and Raffaele’s trial resumed in mid-September 2009 amid a defence motion to dismiss the charges against the two defendants because of alleged faulty forensic work. The defence teams argued that DNA evidence was invalid and said that the case should be dismissed due to the alleged ‘unreliability of the DNA results’.

Judge Massei, however, refused the request and said that the tests had been performed correctly and that the ‘defendants’ rights had not been harmed’.

Later, prosecutors brought in a knife wrapped in plastic and showed it to the jury and asserted that it could have been the knife used to kill Meredith. It was the knife found at Raffaele’s flat. Three forensic
experts were called by his defence team to discuss the alleged murder weapon. Raffaele’s lawyers argued that the knife was too large to match the wounds on Meredith’s neck. They also argued that the amount of Meredith’s DNA found on the knife was too minute to be admitted into evidence. One of the three forensic experts for the defence, Mariano Cingolani, provided information intended to cast doubt on the knife’s compatibility with one of the wounds on Meredith’s neck, but not the wound that was considered to be the fatal one. ‘Many other knives in general are more compatible with that kind of wound,’ Cingolani said.

One of the three cuts on Meredith’s neck would have been larger if the prosecution’s knife had been used, he maintained. Cingolani also said that no firm conclusion could be reached without knowing the position that Meredith’s neck had been in during the attack or the elasticity of the tissues in her neck.

The following month, November 2009, Rudy Guede was brought back into the courtroom to provide testimony at the start of his appeal hearing. He took the court through the details of how he had met Meredith at a Halloween party in Perugia in October 2007, and how he had gone to her cottage the next day. He said that he and Meredith had talked and kissed, but had decided not to have sex.

He repeated his account of how Meredith had complained about her missing money, and how
she had blamed Amanda and accused her of taking it.

‘“My money, my money,”’ he quoted Meredith as saying. ‘“I can’t stand her.”’

He said that Meredith also complained about Amanda’s personal habits and how she brought men back to the cottage. He then went into the details of how he had gone into the bathroom with his iPod, and a few minutes later he had heard shouting between Meredith and Amanda.

‘They were discussing the missing money,’ Guede testified. ‘I heard Meredith say, “We need to talk.” Then I heard a loud scream. It was above the volume of the [iPod] music. I came out and went into Meredith’s bedroom and I saw a male silhouette. I saw Meredith on the floor and this person tried to hit me. I fell over and this person ran out and I heard them say, “Let’s go, there’s a Negro here”. I went into the corridor and looking out of the window I saw going away the outline of Amanda Knox.’

Prosecutor Pietro Catalani said that Guede’s account was ‘worthy of a fairytale.’

‘We are expected to believe he flirted with Meredith, then all this happens in the space of a few minutes while he is in the bathroom?’ Catalani asked the court. Catalani added how traces of Guede’s DNA had been found inside the cottage and on Meredith’s body.

Guede’s appeal concluded on 22nd December 2009, and his sentence was cut from 30 to 16 years for the murder. In a statement Valter Biscotti, his lawyer,
said that Guede was not happy about the reduction because ‘he is innocent’. A second appeal against his conviction is planned.

As the end of Amanda and Raffaele’s trial drew near, they remained optimistic and confident that they would be found innocent, as did their families. Their lawyers, however, had asked for an independent review of all the evidence because of the uncertainties that many people, including experts, had expressed about it and the way it was handled. However, the court denied the request for the review.

On Saturday, November 21, Mignini told the court during closing arguments that Amanda Knox had a growing hatred for Meredith Kercher and had ‘killed her to take revenge’ during an evening fuelled by drugs. Mignini said that Amanda, Raffaele, and Guede had killed Meredith after becoming intoxicated by ‘the fumes of drugs and possibly alcohol,’ because Amanda had wanted revenge against Meredith for saying that she had poor hygiene and was promiscuous. He asserted that the trio had then attempted to cover their crime by staging a burglary.

‘Amanda had the chance to retaliate against a girl who was serious and quiet,’ Mignini said. ‘She
harboured
hatred for Meredith. That was the time it could explode. The time had come to take revenge on that smirky girl.’

Mignini said that the trio met at the cottage where
Amanda and Meredith lived, and that the two girls began arguing before Amanda, Raffaele, and Guede brutally attacked Meredith.

‘Meredith and Amanda began to argue over money,’ Mignini said. ‘Meredith was upset that Amanda had brought another man [Guede] back to the house. They argued about this ugly habit of hers and the three who had arrived were also under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Amanda harboured hatred for Meredith and the time had come for her to take revenge, and that’s when Meredith’s ordeal began… Amanda grabbed her by the hair and hit her head on the floor. Rudy finished what he did and Sollecito was threatening her with his knife. Amanda also had a knife and held it to Meredith’s throat, and as the crescendo of violence grew, inflicted the deepest cut. Meredith did not want to submit herself to the sexual violence [from Guede].’

Mignini said that the ‘break-in’ had been the key to their defence, ‘but it was all simulated.’ He added that no blood or DNA evidence from anyone else was found at the crime scene, and nothing of value was stolen. Mignini described Amanda as ‘narcissistic, angry, aggressive, manipulative, transgressive, theatrical and easily given to disliking people she disagreed with or who did not follow her ideals… she has a tendency to dominate, be obstructive and in particular we should remember her behaviour in the police station when she was seen doing the splits and
cartwheels just after her friend had been murdered.’

Staring at Raffaele, Mignini described him as ‘cold, dependent and with a fear of losing the support of others.’

‘We must not forget what they are accused of, and the victim – this was a murder accompanied by sexual violence for futile motives,’ Mignini continued. ‘A
21-year
-old girl who a few days later should have gone back to London to see her ill mother who she was close to and who she should have embraced along with her father, sister, and two brothers. But she was not able to return and embrace her family. She was killed in an appalling manner, and the only way they can be with her is at the cemetery. She was literally eliminated.’

As Mignini gave his summation, Amanda appeared distraught at the defence table, particularly when he asked the court to impose life sentences on both defendants if the jury found them guilty. He also called for Amanda to be sentenced to nine months of isolation, or solitary confinement.

When Mignini was finished, Amanda asked if she could address the court and she was given permission to do so. Speaking in near-fluent Italian, as she had done throughout the trial, Amanda began to speak, trying to hold back tears.

‘I wanted to speak the other day, but I couldn’t,’ she said. ‘I have to say some important things. This first thing is that Meredith was my friend. I did not hate her. To say that I wanted to take revenge against a person
who I liked is absurd. Then I had no relationship with Rudy. Everything that has been said these last two days is pure fantasy. It’s not true. I have to insist on this and that’s all I want to say. Thank you.’

Amanda’s attorney, Ghirga, called Mignini’s request for a life sentence and isolation as the type of punishment typically given to a Mafia godfather, part of a harsh punishment known as Rule 41 to prevent a Mafia don from exercising power from within prison walls.

‘This request for isolation is one that you would make for different crimes, more associated with Mafia bosses such as Bernardo Provenzano or Toto Riina, not for someone who has a clean record,’ Ghirga said. ‘She is just a young twenty-something girl. The life sentence was expected, but the request for isolation is too much.’

On Friday, December 4, the jury returned with their verdict. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito had been found guilty. The jury sentenced Amanda to 26 years in prison, and sentenced Raffaele to 25 years in prison.

Meredith Kercher’s brother, Lyle, speaking on behalf of her family at a press conference after the verdicts, said: ‘Ultimately we are pleased with the decision, pleased that we’ve got a decision but it’s not a time for celebration.’ Arline Kercher also said that she agreed with the court’s ruling.

‘If the evidence has been presented then, yes, you have to agree with that verdict,’ she said. ‘It’s difficult
to say, but at the end of the day you have to go on the evidence because there’s nothing else.’

The Kercher family was also awarded 4.4 million euros as compensation, but the family said that it was merely ‘symbolic’ and that no amount of money could account for the loss they have sustained. Lyle said that the amount awarded was to ‘reflect the severity and gravity of the case.’

Meredith’s other brother, John, said: ‘Everyone in this room associates Meredith with a tragic event, but we would prefer not to remember her in that way. We would like to concentrate on the 21 years that we had with her.’

Others, including the parents of Amanda and Raffaele, considered verdict a travesty of justice. It is widely accepted that appeals are a certainty.