ROME — A witness at the trial of a U.S student accused of killing her British roommate testified today he didn’t hear anyone scream or anything unusual the night of the murder despite being parked near the crime scene, news reports said.
Pasqualino Coletta took the stand at the trial of American student Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in Perugia, central Italy. Knox and Sollecito are charged with murder and sexual violence in the 2007 death of Knox’s roommate Meredith Kercher. Both deny wrongdoing.
Coletta said his car broke down near the apartment where Kercher was killed on Nov. 1, 2007, forcing him to wait for help between 10:30 and 11 p.m., the ANSA news agency said.
Coletta said his attention “was not caught by anything in particular” during that time frame, ANSA reported.
The 21-year-old Kercher is believed to have died between 9 and 11 p.m., based on the autopsy and the accounts of friends with whom she had eaten dinner that night, court documents say. Her body was found in a pool of blood the next day.
Coletta also testified he did not hear anyone scream, ANSA said.
A prosecution witness, whose apartment overlooks the one where Kercher was slain, said in court last March that she heard a woman’s scream on the night that Kercher died. However, Nara Capezzali later said that she wasn’t sure of the date.
Another witness, Marco Marzan, who lived downstairs from Knox and Kercher, testified today that he didn’t know about any problems between Kercher and her three roommates, including Knox.
Other witnesses previously testified that Kercher had complained about Knox’s bathroom habits and had expressed surprise at her apparent promiscuity. In her first testimony, Knox said Kercher was a “friend” and she felt sad after her roommate’s death.
Prosecutors allege that Kercher was killed during what had begun as a sex game. A third person, Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast, was convicted in a separate trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He denies wrongdoing and has appealed his conviction.
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