Friday, February 13, 2009

Trial: Days 4 And 5 - The Court Agenda For Friday And Saturday

Posted by Nicki


Notes on who will testify, from the Giornale dell’Umbria.

Arriving on Thursday, and accompanied by their parents, will be seven British women student friends of Meredith. The prosecutors consider their testimony very important because the women students are expected to provide important details about relationship and personal movements.

The seven young women are Sophie Purton, Meredith’s closest friend (they were students together at the University of Leeds), Robyn Butterworth, Natalie Hayward, Amy Frost, Samantha Lee Rodenhurst, Jade Bidwell and Mary Power. Since none speaks Italian (after their friend was murdered they quickly returned to England), the Court has appointed a translator, Isabella Preziosi.

The Friday hearing will be devoted to their testimony, which will focus on the last hours in the life of Meredith. She partied with them on Halloween Night, at the pubs and clubs of the old town, and on the afternoon of November 1st was a guest at the apartment of one of the girls.

In particular, the witnesses will be asked to say who Meredith spent the night of Halloween with, whether or not she met Rudy Hermann Guede, and what she said and did during the afternoon they spent talking and having dinner together.

Sophie Purton was the last person who saw Meredith alive. The two walked together from via Bontempi along via Roscetto, a few minutes before 9 pm, on their way home.

The witnesses will also be asked to testify about the relationship between Amanda and Meredith and about what, allegedly, the American girl told them while at the police station waiting to be questioned, on the afternoon of November 2 and during the days that followed.

The Saturday witnesses include Meredith’s roomie Laura Mezzetti, who works for a law firm in Perugia like her friend, Filomena Romanelli, who testified last Saturday.

Giacomo Silenzi (an Italian friend of the British student); his friend Stefano Dalio Bonassi; and the carabiniere Daniel Ceppitelli, the operator of the 112 call center, will also testify. Stefano Bonassi had testified in an earlier hearing that Rudy was attracted to Amanda, when they had met in the downstairs apartment that he shared with Silenzi.

Here is last week’s testimony and here is the theory of the crime.

Posted by Nicki on 02/13/09 at 04:47 AM in Evidence & WitnessesOther witnessesTrials 2008 & 2009

Comments

Sounds very thorough, having seven of them there. Accompanied by their parents, too. Who pays for this btw? It does show that the case is being taken very seriously.

Posted by bluebird002 on 02/13/09 at 01:48 PM | #

Yes this process is really very thorough. Prosecutor Mignini indicated that his budget was paying for all of them including the families. Quite moving that he thought to invite the families.

This will not be easy for them. It could be an emotional day in court today. And again extremely revealing. Meredith’s apparently very tense relationship with AK at the end has never been described from Meredith’s viewpoint. And that intensely odd behavior of RS and AK in the days after, a whole row of callous incidents with smiley faces.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/13/09 at 01:59 PM | #

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