Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox got into a violent argument that started when Kercher interrupted Knox having sex and ended with Kercher’s brutal murder, an Italian court argued Tuesday.
Knox was convicted of killing Kercher in what prosecutors initially said was a sex game gone wrong, but was acquitted on appeal in 2011 after four years in prison. She was found guilty again in January in a shocking turnaround by a Florence court.
This week the court issued a 337-page explanation of its decision, saying that DNA proved there were three people at the crime scene — Knox, her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and a drifter named Rudy Guede.
The court filing reported that Guede was an impolite guest, and that Meredith Kercher interrupted an “intimate moment” between Knox and Sollecito to complain about it.
“The cohabitation had reached such a level of exasperation” that the argument quickly escalated into violence, with the three people in the house “collaborating to immobilise Meredith and use violence against her,” the court argued.
The court speculated that Knox and Sollecito “wanted to prove their power over Meredith and humiliate her,” stabbing her with two knives. The court noted that Knox held the larger knife.
The story cancels out the initial report that Meredith Kercher was killed in a sex attack, saying that kind of activity was not in Kercher’s nature. The trial is set to go to Italy’s highest court, which could overturn the verdict. Knox, who is with her family in Washington state, has vowed not to return if the conviction is upheld
“I’m definitely not going back to Italy willingly,” Knox said . “They’ll have to catch me and pull me back kicking and screaming into a prison that I don’t deserve to be in. I will fight for my innocence.”
The family of Meredith Kercher disagrees, and has called for Amanda Knox to be extradited to face justice.