American killed British student 'for revenge'
20/11/2009 - 16:54:47British student Meredith Kercher was killed by her room mate in a drug-fuelled revenge attack, a court heard today.
American Amanda Knox, promiscuous and self-centred, grew to hate the quiet and serious 21-year-old during the time they shared an apartment together in Italy.
She finally snapped and ended up killing her with the help of two others, prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said in closing arguments at her murder trial in Italy.
He said Knox, together with her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito and a third man convicted in a separate trial last year, killed Miss Kercher under “the fumes of drugs and possibly alcohol” and then tried to cover up their crime by staging a burglary.
Knox wanted to get back at Miss Kercher for saying she was not clean and for calling her promiscuous, Mr Mignini said.
“Amanda had the chance to retaliate against a girl who was serious and quiet,” Mr Mignini said. “She had harboured hatred for Meredith, and that was the time when it could explode. The time had come to take revenge on that smirky girl.”
He said Knox, Sollecito and the third killer Rudy Guede met at the apartment in Perugia where Miss Kercher was killed on November 1, 2007, shortly before the murder, probably to settle some drug issues with Guede, a dealer.
He said Miss Kercher, from Couldson, Surrey, who was on an exchange visit to Italy, and Knox started arguing and then the three attacked her.
Miss Kercher’s body was found in a pool of blood the next day, her throat slashed.
Knox and Sollecito deny murder and sexual violence. Guede was sentenced to 30 years in prison last year on the same charges in a fast-track trial he was granted at his request. He also denies the charge and is appealing his conviction.
Mr Mignini said Miss Kercher’s friends had told the court she expressed surprise and irritation at Knox’s behaviour. Knox has denied having major problems with Miss Kercher and has said in the past she was shocked at the death of a woman she considered a friend.
Mr Mignini also said that Knox and Sollecito staged a burglary in the apartment by breaking a window in a bedroom in an attempt to sidetrack the investigation.
A rock was found in one of the bedrooms, and witnesses testified that shattered glass was found all over clothes on the floor, suggesting the window was broken after the room was put into disarray.
“The key to the mystery is in that room,” Mr Mignini said. It would be nearly impossible to climb through the window without getting cut and leaving blood on the shattered glass.
Also, he argued, that window was the most exposed of the apartment, making it an unlikely choice for a burglar. Nothing in the room with the broken glass, which belonged to one of Knox’s and Miss Kercher’s room mates, was reported missing.
“All of this was done to channel suspicions on a stranger, and divert them from those who had the apartment keys,” he said.
Knox and Sollecito have been held in jail for more than two years and appeared tense as they sat in court today.
Prosecutors were expected to formally make their sentencing requests to the eight-member jury tomorrow, while a verdict is expected in early December. Knox and Sollecito could face Italy’s stiffest punishment, life imprisonment, if convicted of murder.
Among the evidence brought by the prosecutors is a knife with a 6 1/2-inch blade found at Sollecito’s house that they say could be the murder weapon.
The prosecution says it had Miss Kercher’s DNA on the blade and Knox’s on the handle – a claim defence lawyers reject, saying the knife is too big to match Miss Kercher’s wounds and the amount of what prosecutors say is Kercher’s DNA is too low to be attributed with certainty.
The 22-year-old Knox maintains she spent the night of the murder at Sollecito’s house in Perugia. The Sollecito ,25, has said he was home working at his computer that night. He said he does not remember if Knox spent the whole night with him or just part of it.
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