Key Witness in Amanda Knox Trial Stumbles on Date He Saw Pair

PERUGIA, Italy, March 26, 2011— -- A key witness in the Italian trial of American student Amanda Knox gave conflicting statements in court on Saturday when asked to remember what he saw on the night of Nov. 1, 2007.

Knox, 23, and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who turned 27 on Saturday, are appealing their 2009 conviction, of 26 and 25 years in prison respectively, for sexual assault and murder in the death of Knox's British roommate, Meredith Kercher.

Today's main witness, Antonio Curatolo, testified in Knox's first trial in 2009 that he had seen Knox and Sollecito in Piazza Grimana – the square above the house Knox shared with Kercher – on the night of the murder. Curatolo was the only eyewitness brought by the prosecution in the first trial that the judges deemed reliable.

But today he gave conflicting testimony, at one point saying he saw the two on Halloween night — before the murder — and at another suggesting he saw them the next night, Nov. 1.

In an effort to dismantle Curatolo's testimony, the defense of Knox and Sollecito called a number of witnesses on March 12. Disco owners and bus drivers testified that most discos were closed on the night of Nov. 1, 2007 because they had their big Halloween events on the night before. Bus drivers said buses to the discos were not running that night.

One owner of a discotheque on the outskirts of Perugia who testified on Saturday told the Appeals court that his disco was closed that night as were all the other big discos. He explained that for the past seven or eight years Halloween has been "the best night of the year" for Perugia discos and their big student crowd. Halloween has only become popular in Italy in the last decade or so.

Curatolo, who in 2007 lived outdoors in the Piazza Grimana square, where he said he lived for about seven or eight years, told the court on Saturday that he had seen Knox and Sollecito in the square On Nov. 1 talking animatedly. When asked what night it was, he said he thought it was Halloween, "because there were a lot of young people in costume." He said there were a lot of students around, and buses ready to take them to the discos. He also said he thought the date was Nov. 1. or 2., when All Souls Day is celebrated in Italy.