because he was friends with the four guys who lived there. They saw each other at a Halloween party and started talking, and he says she invited him to come over the next night.
“We didn’t have an appointment,” he testified. “She had just said I should come over, so I just went over and she let me in.”
Then, he says, the two of them started to kiss and things were moving along. But he said that neither of them had a condom, so they stopped and started talking. Rudy said that Meredith was complaining about Amanda. She checked her purse and noticed that money was missing, so she immediately blamed Amanda.
“‘My money, my money,’” he recalled Meredith saying. He heard her add, “‘I can’t stand her anymore.’”
Then, he says, he had a stomach cramp and had to use the bathroom. Meredith told him to use the bigger one down the hall. He put on his iPod and listened to four songs, during which time he heard the doorbell ring. He said he then heard Amanda and Meredith arguing, and a few minutes later, he heard a scream. He says he quickly came out of the bathroom, not even taking time to flush the toilet. He saw a man he did not know at the time, but who he later realized was Raffaele. He said he saw Amanda’s silhouette outside the window and heard Raf say to her, “Let’s go, there’s a black man here.” Then Rudy said he went into Meredith’s room to find her bleeding. He moved a pillow
under her and pressed a towel on her neck to try to stop the blood. He didn’t know what to do. He freaked out and ran away.
“Every time I close my eyes, I still see red,” he told his appeals judge. “I am not the one who took her life. But I didn’t save her. That’s the only thing I can apologize for.” Then Rudy turned to the Kerchers’ lawyers and told them, “I want the Kercher family to know that I didn’t take their baby girl away, and I didn’t rape her.”
Rudy’s story is far-fetched. It is just too bizarre to believe that this man would have been at Meredith’s house on the very night her roommate and a lover set out to murder her—and that he would have gone to the toilet at the precise moment they came in. He testified to hearing a doorbell ring, but why would Amanda ring her own doorbell? It is unlikely that Meredith and Rudy had any plan to meet. None of Meredith’s friends saw him at the parties they attended the night of Halloween. Neither Rudy’s nor Meredith’s cell phones showed any trace of contact between the two. The more likely scenario is that Rudy met Meredith just twice. Once, in the downstairs apartment where they were all getting high, and the second time on the night she was murdered. Rudy says that he and
Meredith made out but stopped short of sex, yet Meredith’s body showed signs of vaginal and anal penetration and his DNA was present on her body. As Francesco Maresca, Kercher’s lawyer, told me once, even though the autopsy did not find conclusive evidence of rape, the bruises on her body were not compatible with even rough sex; they were a result of sexual assault. “Sex that ends with someone dead is not consensual,” Maresca declared. “Rudy’s story is unbelievable.”
But it is equally far-fetched to believe, as the Knox camp argues, that Rudy acted alone to kill Meredith. Leaving aside the coroner’s report, he simply wasn’t strong enough to overpower her, sexually assault her, strangle her, and kill her with two different knives, leaving wounds on both sides of her neck without her fighting back—and there was no evidence of that. Rudy’s presence in the murder room is undeniable, although what happened there remains unclear.
The prosecutors never believed Rudy’s story beyond his admission that he was in the house when Meredith died. They have always thought that he met up with Amanda and Raffaele and that the three went to the house together to sew up a drug deal. In fact, one person at the Knox trial testified that he had seen
Amanda and
“We didn’t have an appointment,” he testified. “She had just said I should come over, so I just went over and she let me in.”
Then, he says, the two of them started to kiss and things were moving along. But he said that neither of them had a condom, so they stopped and started talking. Rudy said that Meredith was complaining about Amanda. She checked her purse and noticed that money was missing, so she immediately blamed Amanda.
“‘My money, my money,’” he recalled Meredith saying. He heard her add, “‘I can’t stand her anymore.’”
Then, he says, he had a stomach cramp and had to use the bathroom. Meredith told him to use the bigger one down the hall. He put on his iPod and listened to four songs, during which time he heard the doorbell ring. He said he then heard Amanda and Meredith arguing, and a few minutes later, he heard a scream. He says he quickly came out of the bathroom, not even taking time to flush the toilet. He saw a man he did not know at the time, but who he later realized was Raffaele. He said he saw Amanda’s silhouette outside the window and heard Raf say to her, “Let’s go, there’s a black man here.” Then Rudy said he went into Meredith’s room to find her bleeding. He moved a pillow
under her and pressed a towel on her neck to try to stop the blood. He didn’t know what to do. He freaked out and ran away.
“Every time I close my eyes, I still see red,” he told his appeals judge. “I am not the one who took her life. But I didn’t save her. That’s the only thing I can apologize for.” Then Rudy turned to the Kerchers’ lawyers and told them, “I want the Kercher family to know that I didn’t take their baby girl away, and I didn’t rape her.”
Rudy’s story is far-fetched. It is just too bizarre to believe that this man would have been at Meredith’s house on the very night her roommate and a lover set out to murder her—and that he would have gone to the toilet at the precise moment they came in. He testified to hearing a doorbell ring, but why would Amanda ring her own doorbell? It is unlikely that Meredith and Rudy had any plan to meet. None of Meredith’s friends saw him at the parties they attended the night of Halloween. Neither Rudy’s nor Meredith’s cell phones showed any trace of contact between the two. The more likely scenario is that Rudy met Meredith just twice. Once, in the downstairs apartment where they were all getting high, and the second time on the night she was murdered. Rudy says that he and
Meredith made out but stopped short of sex, yet Meredith’s body showed signs of vaginal and anal penetration and his DNA was present on her body. As Francesco Maresca, Kercher’s lawyer, told me once, even though the autopsy did not find conclusive evidence of rape, the bruises on her body were not compatible with even rough sex; they were a result of sexual assault. “Sex that ends with someone dead is not consensual,” Maresca declared. “Rudy’s story is unbelievable.”
But it is equally far-fetched to believe, as the Knox camp argues, that Rudy acted alone to kill Meredith. Leaving aside the coroner’s report, he simply wasn’t strong enough to overpower her, sexually assault her, strangle her, and kill her with two different knives, leaving wounds on both sides of her neck without her fighting back—and there was no evidence of that. Rudy’s presence in the murder room is undeniable, although what happened there remains unclear.
The prosecutors never believed Rudy’s story beyond his admission that he was in the house when Meredith died. They have always thought that he met up with Amanda and Raffaele and that the three went to the house together to sew up a drug deal. In fact, one person at the Knox trial testified that he had seen
Amanda and
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