Amanda Knox Killed Roommate Over Money Argument?

Knox, Roommate Argued Over Money: Court

By David K. Li

 

Amanda Knox and her tragic roommate bitterly argued over money before “Foxy Knoxy” finished her off with a kitchen knife, according to Italian court documents unsealed Tuesday.

There was ample physical evidence to convict the Seattle co-ed and two others of murdering Meredith Kercher on Nov. 2, 2007, a court in Florence said in a 337-page ruling from January that declared Knox guilty in a retrial.

Kercher, 21, was killed “by multiple aggressors” who forcibly restrained her while stabbing her, the court ruled.

The British co-ed had no defensive wounds, which the court reasoned, showed she was overpowered and didn’t have a chance against knife-wielding killers.

Knox’s co-defendant and then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito used a small knife to stab the right side of Kercher’s neck and cut off her bra, according to the court.

Co-defendant Rudy Hermann Guede sexually assaulted Kercher before Knox “delivered the only mortal blow,” by butchering her roommate with a kitchen knife, the court said.

Knox, now 26, was originally convicted of Kercher’s murder in Perugia, where both women were exchange students, and spent four years behind bars, before Italy’s high court vacated verdicts against her and Sollecito in 2011.

Knox rushed home to Seattle after she was released and has vowed never to return to Italy.

She was retried in absentia and found guilty again by an appellate court in Florence in January. The court documents released Tuesday detailed that second guilty verdict.

“It is a matter of fact that at a certain point in the evening events accelerated; the English girl was attacked by Amanda Marie Knox, by Raffaele Sollecito, who was backing up his girlfriend, and by Rudy Hermann Guede, and constrained within her own room,” according to the court.

This appellate court backed away from the prosecution’s earlier assertion that Kercher was killed when she declined to have kinky sex with Knox and her boyfriend.

An undated photo of British student Meredith Kercher.

It was an earlier argument over money that prompted Knox’s “desire to abuse and humiliate the . . . girl,” according to the court.

Knox was sentenced to 28¹/₂ years in prison in January. She still has avenues to appeal January’s ruling and could string out the process for months, if not years.

And even if Knox loses and runs out of appeals, there’s still no guarantee that US authorities would honor an extradition request by Italy.

Sollecito’s lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, ridiculed the court’s reasoning.

“Honestly the verdict is so full of errors, illogical elements and contradictions, that I strongly believe it will be overturned [on appeal],” Bongiorno said.