Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Libero Is Reporting, If Guilty Verdict, Life-In-Prison Sentences A Possibility

Posted by Tiziano


Please click above for Libero’s analysis posted tonight on their website. A translation:

MEREDITH, A DECISIVE WEEK, FINAL VERDICTS EXPECTED.

It is a decisive week for the final verdicts for the murder of Meredith.

Indeed the appeal trial of Rudy Guede is listed for Wednesday, while on Friday the summing up by the prosecutors in the first stage trial of Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox, for whom the verdict is expected in the first days of December, will take place. 

The final judgment is very much anticipated, because it will decide whether the three accused are in fact responsible for Meredith’s murder. Their position is very grave no matter what, as the charges underline. 

In the meantime the lawyers for Guede, Biscotti and Gentile, have explained that their client will make a voluntary statement and that they will ask for the reopening of the investigative debate to allow for the carrying out of an expert investigation on the blood-stained towels with which Guede said he padded the fatal wound to the neck suffered by Meredith Kercher.

The two criminal lawyers thus intend to demonstrate that the Ivorian did indeed attempt to help the young woman who was knifed by someone else, while he - according to the accused’s own version - was in the bathroom.

Thus, while the Ivorian claims he is innocent, the GUP condemns him: “He actively participated in the aggression in the context of an extended sexual game, which was furthermore carried out resorting to strong-arm tactics, ending up in sexual violence and murder in the face of the persistent resistance of the victim”. 

This homicide, according to the judges, also saw the involvement of Rafffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox.

On Friday PM Manuela Comodi and PM Giuliano Mignini will delineate further the prosecution’s position, and it is not to be discounted that the decision will be life in prison.  About the beginning of December the court will resume for final sittings.

Posted by Tiziano on 11/18/09 at 06:03 AM in The officially involvedTrials 2008 & 2009Amanda KnoxRaff Sollecito

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http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/cronache/200911articoli/49514girata.asp

Omicidio Meredith, Rudy Guede alla sbarra: “Non l’ho uccisa io”

Translated from La Stampa
MEREDITH MURDER, RUDY GUEDE IN THE DOCK: “I wasn’t the one who killed her.”

The Ivorian addresses the Kercher family: “I am not the killer of your daughter.”

Perugia

“I want to let the Kercher family know that I did not either kill or violate their dear daughter.  I am not the one who took her life.” This is what Rudy Guede said at the end of a long voluntary statement made this morning before the Appeal Court of the Assizes of Perugia, which is trying him for the murder of the English student Meredith Kercher.

In court this morning there was also the psychiatrist Alessandro Meluzzi, who together with the criminologist Vincenzo Mastronardi provided advice for the defence on the behaviour of the accused after the crime.  In fact, Guede fled and was arrested in Germany. This was behaviour of “flight and avoidance”, according to Meluzzi, linked to “traumatic stress syndrome” which struck him after the crime.  In the course of his voluntary statement , Guede reconstructed what happened the evening of Meredith’s murder - in which he continues to say he had no part - the days before, and those after.  He explained having met Meredith on October 31st 2007 during a party in a disco and having had a date with her for the following evening. “I gave her a kiss on the cheek and then I said, see you,” the Ivorian explained.  Then he told the court that the evening after that meeting he went into the house in Via della Pergola - later the scene of the crime - together with Kercher:  “While we were in the house - Guede claimed - Meredith started railing against Amanda (Knox, her housemate, also accused of the crime together with her ex-lover Sollecito - ed). My money, my money. I can’t stand her any longer,” Meredith said.

The Ivorian then explained that he had made overtures to the English student, but had not had sexual relations.  After about fifteen minutes - according to his version - he went to the bathroom.  “I heard the voices of Meredith and Amanda - Guede added - who were arguing about the missing money.  All I heard was ‘we have to talk’ but I was not concerned, because I thought that it was just an argument between two girls who were living in the same house.  While I was in the bathroom I began to listen to music on an i-pod, but in the middle of the third song I heard a very loud scream.  I rushed to see what had happened and in Meredith’s room I saw a male figure.  There was a flash and this person tried to strike me.  I moved backwards and fell over into the living room.  At that point outside the house I heard someone running away and saying ‘Let’s get out of here, there’s a black man in the house’.  I didn’t have the courage to follow them, but looking out the window I saw the outline of Amanda.”

Guede then explained that he went into Meredith’s room and tried to stem the blood which was flowing from her after she had been fatally wounded in the neck with a knife.  “Meredith was dying - Guede claimed - and she was trying to tell me something, I was holding her hand.  I went into shock at that point.  In my head there were so many questions without answers.  I was afraid.”  The young man then affirmed that he “found himself in Germany”, where he was then arrested, but of having “nothing
to run away from”.  Then Guede described his return to Italy.  “This, your honour - he affirmed - is what I saw.  I have nothing to hide and I am not a liar.  When I shut my eyes I still see red everywhere.”

Posted by Tiziano on 11/18/09 at 02:29 PM | #

Good to know that Rudy sealed the deal on his 30 year sentence. Why cannot he not tell the truth? Perhaps he had a greater role in the crime? I would never believe that Meredith would be interested in him, period. He may not be a liar but he sure left out a lot of information.
Thank you Tiziano for the excellent translation.

Posted by tigger34 on 11/18/09 at 09:26 PM | #

I am disappointed as well, but .. it is not a real surprise.

Now, we cannot exclude that there is some truth in what he says. I was always a bit puzzled by the feces in the toilet. Of course, we do not know if he used to flush in “normal circumstances” (whatever normal is for him…) but if he usually did, then something must have happened to rush him out of the toilet like he said.

He also seems to have tried to stop the blood from coming out, as there were the towels etc… He may well have panicked, guilty or less guilty.

If only he said the whole truth, it would be so much better. Is he afraid, maybe? That is my guess. And a natural born liar, probably.

Posted by Patou on 11/18/09 at 09:35 PM | #

Not that i believe Guede’s account(s)...(If you are innocent of wrongdoing, and if you purportedly care about the victim, you call for help, without thought for your own wellbeing. Certainly your distress would be obvious to first responders?) but did he ever mention Meredith’s state of dress upon his re-entry from the bathroom?

Was she atttired then as found by the Carabiniere, or still clothed. He claims she argued with AK,which I cannot imagine her having done nearly naked. Or does he too believe that she was undressed after death, to make him appear her rapist rather than her “date”. Overtures???

I can imagine that the sight of such a great amount of blood would have caused anyone but a butcher to reel, but PTSD? Is wild abandon at the disco a recommended therapy for mental trauma? Or does music (ipod on the pot) provide the hand-holding that little Rudy can’t cope without? He looks too calm on camera.

Again, why Germany? And how did the friend (whose internet appeal to him led to his German arrest) get pulled into the story?

Posted by mimi on 11/18/09 at 11:32 PM | #

Mimi - I agree with you, it’s very hard to make any coherent sense out of Guede’s story especially in the light of the evidence and reports that Meredith was struggling with three people for a long time. And we heard before that Meredith did not mention to her friends that she had a date that evening, rather that she was going home to study and rest.

I don’t think anyone could believe that a person - even a “weak personality”-  could see a gravely injured person (one he alleges he had some feeling for), make a feeble attempt to help them but become suddenly so selfishly scared of being blamed that they turn tail and run, leaving the victim to die? It’s chilling.

Since he can’t deny being there once again he’s trying to construct a scenario in which he is innocent of wrongdoing without going so far as to blame the other two directly - he saw a “silhouette” and “heard a voice” etc.

He’s a liar, and a sickening one.

Posted by lilly on 11/19/09 at 10:50 AM | #

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