“I was in love with her and we had some very happy moments, but ultimately Amanda was a stranger.”
Words spoken by Raffaele Sollecito in his press conference held earlier today in Rome, Italy. Raffaele and his defense team have announced that they believe that the 25-year-sentence given Sollecito should be thrown out and he should be given a fresh new trial, separate from Amanda Knox.
This is the new defense strategy of Raffaele Sollecito. He wishes to defend only himself and not offer any support to Amanda Knox. This shifts the burden of guilt onto Amanda Knox who now has no alibi and was proven again, to have lied to investigators.
Raffaele carefully described how the evidence proved he was completely innocent. Sollecito officially withdrew his alibi for Knox stating,
Before this, he claimed that he was with her that night. But now, he maintains that he has always meant that he was with her later in the evening, hours after Meredith was stabbed to death. This leaves Amanda unaccounted for at the time of the murder. Raffaele now claims that he was at home – alone.
This is not the first time that Raffaele expressed uncertainty concerning the 26-year-old, Amanda’s whereabouts on the evening of November 1, 2007. At his preliminary hearing he told a judge that he was at home but he did not know where Amanda was. Now the Honor Bound author is once again, ‘throwing Amanda under the bus.’
Amanda has always proclaimed that she was in Raffaele’s apartment, with Raffaele, when she received a text message from her boss, Patrick Lumumba, to not go to work. However, phone data has proven that Amanda was in fact, not located in Raffaele’s apartment but out in the street when she received the text message and replied to it.
30-year-old Raffaele also pointed out that, “’She herself lets me off the hook and gives me an alibi,’” referring to Knox’s memoriale. In it she asserts that she was in the cottage, covering her ears to block out Meredith Kercher‘s screams. Amanda made no mention of Raffaele’s presence in the cottage that night. Instead she falsely accused her boss, Patrick Lumumba of the murder. Lumumba was freed from jail two weeks later by witnesses who vouched for him.
Unlike Lumumba, Knox has no one to vouch for her that evening. Now that Raffaele has slipped away from her, she stands alone to prove where she was that night. The courts have determined that she was indeed at the cottage that fateful night and took part in stabbing Meredith Kercher to death. Knox is facing a 28.5 year prison sentence for her involvement in the crime.
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