Angel Face_ Sex, Murder and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox - Barbie Latza Nadeau [46]
TOWARD THE END of the trial, the defense team members tried a make-or-break submission. They insisted that the discrepancies in DNA analysis obliged the judge to order a superperizia, or super analyst, to review all the DNA evidence.
“The jury has heard two different explanations for most of the DNA evidence presented,” declared Dalla Vedova. “An independent review will be the final word.”
“Rehashing all the evidence will not change its outcome,” prosecutor Mignini said, opposing the request. Judge Massei, who always seemed to welcome opportunities to deliberate with his jurors, stood up and, without a word, smiled and led them into chambers. Two hours later, he emerged to say, “I am denying the defense request to have an independent analysis of all the DNA evidence.” He added, “The decision is not an indicator of guilt.”
But in fact it was. Raffaele sunk in his chair. He knew that the fact that the evidence would stand meant that even the judge believed the prosecution’s case. Amanda seemed unaware of the impact of this decision.
The prosecution concluded its final arguments with a video dramatization of the murder, complete with sexy avatars of Amanda, Meredith, Raffaele, and Rudy—the women with big breasts and tiny waists à la Lara Croft, the men with broad shoulders and bulging crotches. It was a bizarre film that superimposed these animated figures over real crime scene photos. Behind the scenes, the making of this video nearly broke the prosecution’s team apart. Il Messaggero’s Italo Carmignani learned that Mignini and Comodi clashed over whether to include the sexual violence against Meredith. Mignini also wanted to reintroduce the theory of a Satanic ritual. Comodi blocked both impulses. But the video did prove effective. Rather than listening to defense experts hypothesize with mannequins and diagrams, jurors saw an exact enactment of what the prosecution thought had happened. It was compelling.
THE ANIMATION BEGINS with events that happened late in the afternoon of November 1 and shows Amanda and Raf meeting up with Rudy at the basketball courts. It then jumps from scene to scene according to the time points that were established by witness testimony and logs from the cell phone carrier; a phone that’s turned on sends periodic pings to the base station, which can pinpoint its location. There is no dialogue in the video, because the girls would have presumably been speaking English. Instead, prosecutor Comodi reads a narration that includes the time of each segment and an explanation of each scene backed up by courtroom testimony. At 8:18 P.M., Amanda is on the via Ulisse Rocchi in downtown Perugia when she receives a text message from her boss, Patrick, telling her that she didn’t have to come in to work. At 8:30, she goes to Raf’s apartment on corso Garibaldi nearby. At 8:38, she sends a text to acknowledge Patrick’s message. Meanwhile, Meredith is finishing dinner with her English friends. At 8:45 P.M., she and Sophie leave Robyn’s house, then split up at the via Roscetto. At 8:46 P.M., Raf turns off his cell phone. At 9 P.M., the video shows, Meredith is eating a mushroom out of the fridge back at her apartment. (There were no mushrooms on the pizza at Robyn’s house, yet it was the last food she ate, according to autopsy reports. But there was no sign that this could have been a hallucinogenic.) Raffaele makes the last keystroke on his computer at 9:10 P.M. At 9:45, the video shows, Amanda and Raffaele leave his apartment and head toward the basketball courts on Piazza Grimana to reach via della Pergola. At Amanda’s house, they meet Rudy to work out a prearranged drug deal. At 11:20, Amanda opens the door on via della Pergola, and the three enter the apartment.
Meredith is in her room. Rudy