Witness: I Heard Amanda Knox at Murder Scene

Fellow suspect claims the murdered woman accused Knox of stealing from her.

ByABC News
October 28, 2008, 5:59 PM

ROME, March 27, 2008 — -- For the first time in the nearly five-month investigation, a witness has placed American college student Amanda Knox in the Perugia, Italy, apartment when her roommate's throat was slashed.

The accusation was made by fellow murder suspect Rudy Guede during an interview with the prosecutor on the case Wednesday, according to Italy's national news service ANSA.

Guede, an Ivory Coast native who admits having had sex with Meredith Kercher the night she died, is being held in an Italian jail along with Knox, 20, and Knox's 23-year-old boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.

Kercher, a 22-year-old English student, was slashed to death Nov. 2 in Perugia, in a murder that has ensnared suspects from three countries.

Guede, 21, had previously said that when he left Kercher to use the bathroom, she was alive, and when he returned, she had been stabbed in the neck.

In previous statements he claimed to have scuffled with a knife-wielding white man but says he was unable to get a good look at him because the man was wearing a hood.

ANSA reports that during the interrogation, Guede told investigators that he now recognizes the man's face to be that of Sollecito

He also told investigators for the first time that he clearly heard Knox's voice in the doorway, although he does not claim to have seen her in the room where the murder took place, ANSA reports. Nevertheless, Guede did describe for police the clothes that Knox and Sollecito were wearing that night, the news agency reports.

ANSA reports that Guede gave police an alleged motive for the grisly slaying: that Knox and Kercher hated each other and on the night of the murder, Kercher had accused Knox of stealing 250 euros from her dresser.

As the suspects ran away, Guede told police that he heard Sollecito yell out, ''I found that black guy, they'll blame him!'' ANSA reports.

ANSA's version of the interrogation could not be immediately confirmed, although an investigative source confirmed to ABC News that Guede has been grilled.

"It was not a very long interrogation, but it was thorough. The suspect spoke freely, and he was relaxed," the source told ABC News.

It was the first time that Guede was interviewed by the Italian prosecutor, indicating that the glacial speed of the probe is nearing a decisive moment. The prosecutor has indicated he may wrap up his investigation by the summer.