Reports: Coroner testifies at Italian trial

[June 20, 2009]  ROME (AP) -- A coroner told a jury Saturday that a stab wound to the neck of a British student slain in Italy was caused by a shorter knife than the one believed to be the murder weapon, news reports said.

Francesco Introna, taking the stand at the murder trial of U.S. student Amanda Knox and Italian co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, also said that no more than a single attacker could have assaulted the victim on the night of the 2007 slaying, the ANSA news agency said.

Knox and her former boyfriend Sollecito are on trial in Perugia, central Italy, on charges of murder and sexual violence in the death of Knox's roommate Meredith Kercher. Both deny wrongdoing. Introna, who was called to the stand by Sollecito's defense lawyers, testified that the cut on Kercher's neck was made with a knife with a 3-3 1/2-inch-long (8-9 centimeters long) blade, ANSA said. Prosecutors say that a 6 1/2-inch (16.5 centimeters) knife found at Sollecito's house matched the victim's wounds and could be the murder weapon. They say the knife had Kercher's DNA on the blade and Knox's on the handle. Prosecutors allege that Kercher was killed during what had begun as a sex game. Her body was found in the apartment she shared with Knox on Nov. 2, 2007. 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. Introna said that the bedroom where Kercher was killed was too small and that it would be "physically impossible" that three people could have attacked her, ANSA said. [Associated Press; By MARTA FALCONI] Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.