U.S. Student "Going Crazy" In Italy Jail

20-Year-Old Seattle Woman Remains Jailed In Connection With British Student's Murder

(CBS/AP)  An American student jailed in connection with the slaying of her British roommate was quoted Thursday as saying she was "going crazy" during her first days in jail.

Amanda Marie Knox, a 20-year-old from Seattle, has been jailed in Perugia since Nov. 6. On Friday, a judge must decide whether she and another suspect - her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito - should remain behind bars.

Knox agreed to talk to the Turin newspaper La Stampa, but not about the night Meredith Kercher was killed.

"No questions about that night; I don't want to be affected by things that I learn from outside," she is quoted as saying, speaking Italian. "Whenever I see Perugia footage on TV, I switch channels. What I have to say I want to say to judges alone. And to my lawyer."

Knox has given conflicting statements since Kercher was found dead in their Perugia apartment on Nov. 2. Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student, was killed by a knife wound to the neck, and prosecutors said she died fighting off a sexual assault.

Knox first said she wasn't home the night of the slaying, but later told prosecutors she was in the apartment, saying she had to cover her ears to drown out Kercher's screams.

Her lawyer, however, is expected Friday to go back to the original version - that Knox was not at home - when he speaks to the judge ruling on Knox's detention, according to La Stampa and other Italian reports citing a defense document prepared for the hearing.

Knox told La Stampa that the first days in jail were difficult.

"The first days, I was kept isolated," she told the newspaper, speaking in Italian. "It was very hard; I couldn't have any relations with anybody." Then she was transferred to a ward housing people accused of sexual crimes, the newspaper said.

"My God, those days were terrible; nobody talked to me," Knox is quoted as saying. "I thought I was going crazy and I prayed that they would move me. When I arrived here, everything changed."'

"They treat me with dignity," she said, adding that her fellow inmates are "wonderful."

Knox's and Kercher's DNA were found on a knife that investigators believe may have been the murder weapon; the knife was found in Sollecito's home.

The top investigating prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, wrote that the body of evidence against Knox has only grown as the probe continued.

It has been reported that Knox and Sollecito purchased thong underwear at a lingerie store two days after the murder was discovered, behaved provocatively and were overheard talking about going home to indulge in wild sex, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.

In addition to Knox and Sollecito, 23, Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native, has been detained in the slaying. Guede is to be extradited from Germany. All have denied any wrongdoing.

[joanna38]

Cox killed noone and then again maybe it did....

[joanna38]

Oops...Knox and NOT Cox.

[joanna38]

So....more corruption comes to Italy. What do these American , and other foreign parents, think when they send their daughters to Italy to study in Perugia? This Amanda was all set up in her apartment when she took Kercher in as a roommate. She also worked at the bar owned by Lumumba from the Congo. Now there is another person, German I think, involved in this. Cox did the killing as far as I can figure this out. Jealousy. Most prob caught the Italian boyfriend trying to *** up the roommate. But in the meantime these "students" are smoking hash and what else, who knows. Mr and Mrs Cox, so much for your pure, angelic Amanda! If she was not caught up in this murder who knows what her next step would be.....local bar Ho? If not already that.

[krazykat2525]

trying to use temporarily insane as a plea? This is just beyond sick; think of the poor girl; instead of helping her roommate or calling for help/going for help she had "to put her hands over her ears";

[wheezel3]

Um, you can''t say d_y_k_e on these comments? Maybe in Italian it''s "el d''yikia" or something.

[wheezel3]

Wormy murderer! Aw, she has to change the TV channel sometimes...poor baby...going crazy, aw...hope some big italian *** takes a shine to her wormy face.

[excoachken]

Did she think that everybody deserves Paris Hilton treatment?

[vittoria1]

Plunger rape? Stupro da sturalavandino might do, though I''m sure there''s some more idiomatic term.

To tell you all the truth, If I were to go to prison for murder, I''d rather it happen in Italy than in the U.S. For one thing, my sentence would definitely be shorter. If Knox is convicted, she will not do particularly hard time. Italy''s justice system is more lenient than ours, and the prisons are by no means hellholes.

[itsnotaboutu]

Does anybody know the Italian translation for plunger rape because that is a term she will become VERY familiar with in prison.
Posted by koko98

That''s only if she''s lucky. Expand your imagination a little, and think: fists, brushes (the bristle end) flashlights, roled up magazines...oh yeah, it''s none too good.

[chipsgrl]

The media are hilarious. Over on abcnews.com, there''s an article on how "Foxy Knoxy" is feeling "serene" in her Italian jail cell. So which is it - "serene" or "going crazy"? I know, I know, who cares.