Suspect in Perugia Murder Case Seeks Fast-Track Trial

Man accused in U.K. woman's killing wants separate trial from other suspects.

ByABC News
September 9, 2008, 3:13 PM

ROME, Sept. 9, 2008 — -- Defense lawyers for Rudy Guede, one of the three suspects in jail for the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher, said today that they are convinced their client was not involved in the killing and that they will be able to prove it.

After reading the prosecutor's documents filed in the court this summer, the defense lawyers said during a news conference today that if the judge at a preliminary hearing next week decides that Guede should be indicted, they will ask that he be tried separately in a fast-track procedure based on the evidence presented to date.

Since Kercher was found seminaked with her throat cut at her Perugia home the morning of Nov. 2, 2007, the case has received wide public attention in Britain, Italy and the United States. One of the suspects is a 21-year-old American student Amanda Knox, from Seattle, who shared the apartment with Kercher and two Italian law students.

The judge at the pretrial, closed-door hearing, which is set to start Sept. 16 in the Perugia Courts, will decide whether Guede, Knox and her 24-year-old Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito should be indicted and stand trial for the murder.

If Guede is indicted and the fast-track proposal is accepted, the judge at the pretrial hearing will also decide whether Guede, a 21-year-old Ivory Coast citizen, is guilty of Kercher's murder. A fast-track trial procedure calls for an immediate decision based on the evidence already presented to the court, and allows for a reduction of an eventual guilty sentence by one-third.

A decision on the indictments of all three suspects is not likely to be announced on the first day of the hearing.

Prosecutors also want to charge the three with sexual violence and stealing 300 euros, two credit cards and two mobile phones from Kercher.

All three suspects deny sexually assaulting and murdering the student. Guede has admitted to being in the house with her the night she was killed but says he did not do it.

The prosecutor says he has forensic evidence linking all three to the scene of the crime.