FLORENCE, Italy, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Raffaele Sollecito has consistently stood by his ex-girlfriend Amanda Knox in the years since they were found guilty of Meredith Kercher's murder, exonerated and found guilty again. 
 
 But in a new interview with Italian TV, Sollecito, 29, said he "questioned" Knox's strange behavior in the hours before police found Kercher's body. 
 
 Sollecito said Knox left his apartment to take a shower, then returned hours later looking "very agitated." She said she had found blood on the floor and her front door open. 
 
 "Certainly I asked her questions," he said. "Why did you take a shower? Why did she spend so much time there?" 
 
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 When asked how he reconciled that behavior with her innocence, Sollecito said, "I don’t have answers." 
 
 Knox wrote in a blog post earlier this month that Sollecito wanted to distance himself from her, rather that he was tired of being portrayed as a incapable of "self-determination." 
 
 She shared part of an email Sollecito had written to her: 
 
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 "I don’t want to be punished for, nor have to continue to justify, those things that regard you and not me. Obviously the evidence demonstrates both of our innocence, but it seems that for the judges and the people this objectivity is of no importance." 
 
 Both Knox and Sollecito are appealing their most recent convictions for Kercher's 2007 murder, though it won't be till next year that Italy's Supreme Court hears their case. ||||| The pair were reconvicted of the crime last month, but reports have started to emerge that suggest the 29-year-old Italian is looking to distance himself from Knox in the lead-up to their next supreme court appeal hearing. 
 
 Speaking in an interview broadcast on Italian TV, Sollecito said the American had left his flat on the morning when Ms Kercher’s body was found to take a shower, returning hours later appearing “very agitated”. 
 
 He said Knox told him her front door had been broken into and that she had found small bloodstains in the bathroom, according to footage aired on NBC’s Today programme yesterday. 
 
 “Certainly I asked her questions,” Sollecito said. “Why did you take a shower? Why did you spend so much time there?” 
 
 Responding to the Italian reporter’s question of what answers he could give for those questions, he said: “I don’t have answers.” 
 
 The exchange comes after Knox posted an email from Sollecito on her blog earlier this month, in which he wrote: “I don't want to be punished for, nor have to continue to justify, those things that regard you and not me.” 
 
 NBC’s legal analyst Lisa Bloom said: “I think he's distancing himself from her. He's saying that there is some evidence that may apply to her, which doesn't apply to him.” 
 
 Kercher's sister, Stephanie Kercher (L) and brother Lyle Kercher speak during a press conference in Florence, 2014 As well as posting an image online in which she holds up a sign saying “we are innocent” in Italian, Knox denied that her former boyfriend was abandoning his defence of her. 
 
 “This is not the case,” she said. “Raffaele has plenty of reason for resentment, but not against me. The only reason he has been dragged into this is because he happens to be my alibi. 
 
 “He is collateral damage in the unreasonable, irresponsible, and unrelenting scapegoating of the prosecution’s grotesque caricature that is ‘Foxy Knoxy’.” 
 
 Both she and Sollecito are appealing the reconvictions, with the case due to be heard by Italy's Supreme Court by early 2015. 
 
 Knox, 26, was sentenced to 28 years and six months in prison, while Sollecito, 29, was given a 25 year sentence. A third person who was convicted over Ms Kercher’s death, Rudy Guede, is currently serving a 16-year sentence. 
 
 Earlier this month, Ms Kercher’s family launched an impassioned plea for her memory to be honoured, and that they were desperate for “some sort of closure”. 
 
 Her sister Stephanie said: “Just having an end of the Italian justice system and knowing that's the final decision, and then we can start to remember just Meredith.” ||||| Local 
 
 Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are shown outside her apartment following the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher in November, 2007. (AP file) 
 
 Report: Amanda Knox's former boyfriend to abandon her alibi in final murder appeal 
 
 Amanda Knox's former boyfriend is reportedly abandoning her in his last and final appeal in the murder of Knox's roommate. 
 
 Lawyers for Raffaele Sollecito told Italian reporters Monday that Sollecito's appeal for his murder conviction will distance himself from Knox and potentially incriminate her. 
 
 Sollecito's lawyers were quoted in various news reports saying he "was home alone that night" or that he is "only sure about the fact that he was at home," leaving open the possibility that Knox was not there, IBT Times UK reports. 
 
 Sollecito and Knox have both stated repeatedly in their previous trials the two were together November 1, 2007 in his home in Perugia, Italy when Meredith Kercher was murdered in the apartment she shared with Knox and others. 
 
 "It's stunning because we've been hearing consistently Raffaele Sollecito had been corroborating Amanda Knox's account, essentially an alibi," says Anne Bremner, the attorney for the Friends of Amanda Knox. 
 
 Bremner says in addition to his testimony, Sollecito's memoir "Honor Bound" is based entirely on the premise he stood by Knox and told the truth because it was the right thing to do. 
 
 "The question is what does he have to do or feel he has to do to get through this thing. Maybe he's been advised to distance himself from Amanda Knox, but he can't deviate from what the truth is," Bremner says. 
 
 The couple was convicted in 2009. After several appeals and rulings, an appellate court upheld both convictions in January, sentencing Knox to 28-and-a-half years in prison, Sollecito to 26 years. 
 
 Both have maintained their innocence and are appealing to Italy's top court, the Court of Cassation in Rome. The case is expected to be heard in early 2015. 
 
 Prosecutors originally argued that Kercher was killed in a drug-fueled sex game gone awry ï¿½ an accusation that made the case a tabloid sensation. 
 
 But at the third trial, a new prosecutor argued that the violence stemmed from arguments between roommates Knox and Kercher about cleanliness and was triggered by a toilet left unflushed by a third defendant, Rudy Hermann Guede. 
 
 Guede, who is from the Ivory Coast, was convicted in a separate trial in a verdict that specified he did not commit the crime alone. He is serving a 16-year sentence. 
 
 Knox has repeatedly maintained her innocence and vowed that she is innocent. In her blog, she has written frequently about the injustice and lack of evidence in the case. 
 
 "Experts agreed that my DNA was not found anywhere in Meredith's room, while the DNA of the actual murderer, Rudy Guede, was found throughout that room and on Meredith's body," she wrote in her most recent post. "This forensic evidence directly refutes the multiple-assailant theory found in the new motivation document. This theory is not supported by any reliable forensic evidence." 
 
 If Knox's conviction is upheld by Italy's highest court, the country could request her extradition from the United States. But Bremner says her legal team would fight extradition as vigorously as possible. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
 
 
 
 Josh Kerns is an award winning reporter/anchor and host of KIRO Radio's Seattle Sounds (Sunday afternoons 5-6p) and a digital content producer for MyNorthwest.com. Josh Kerns , MyNorthwest.com 
 
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 Disqus ||||| Amanda Knox told an Italian court today that she was "shocked" when a convicted murderer implicated her in the death of her roommate Meredith Kercher and said she was sorry she couldn't tell him to his face. 
 
 Knox was not allowed to speak until after Rudy Guede left the courtroom. Guede, an Ivory Coast drifter, has been convicted along with Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in Kercher's murder. His sentence was shortened to 16 years on appeal. 
 
 During his appearance at Knox's appeal hearing today, Guede refused to answer questions about the Kercher's 2007 murder. Guede insisted he was only in court to answer questions about former cellmate Mario Alessi, a convicted criminal who testified last week that Guede told him that Knox and Sollecito were not present at Kercher's murder. 
 
 The prosecutor was allowed, however, to read a letter in which Guede denied Alessi's claims and indicated that Knox and Sollecito were tied to Kercher's death. 
 
 Knox, who is from Seattle, tried to speak, but was told by the judge she would have to wait until Guede finished. Knox watched Guede steadily during his testimony. Guede avoided looking at her. 
 
 After Guede left the stand and the courtroom, Knox, speaking in Italian, told the court that the only time she, Sollecito and Guede was in the same room was in a courtroom. 
 
 Amanda Knox Tells Italian Court She Is Shocked 
 
 "I am shocked and anguished by these declarations....he knows we weren't there," she told the court. 
 
 Knox said she was sorry she couldn't say it to him in court today, "that he should say the truth first." 
 
 Sollecito also spoke to the court. 
 
 Albert0 Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images US Amanda Knox takes place in court at the... View Full Size Albert0 Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images US Amanda Knox takes place in court at the start of a session of her appeal trial in Perugia's courthouse, June 27, 2011. 
 
 "I've never seen him, don't know him. ...don't know how he indicates me with Amanda Knox," Sollecito said. He said that he and Knox have been fighting "these shadows" for four years. 
 
 Guede has "destroyed our lives," Sollecito said and asked, "What position am I meant to defend if this boy doesn't answer (questions)?" 
 
 For complete coverage of Amanda Knox, check out "THE AMANDA KNOX STORY: A Murder in Perugia," a new ABC Video Book, on sale everywhere enhanced eBooks are sold. Click here for more information and an exclusive excerpt. 
 
 While on the stand, Guede denied Alessi's claim that Guede confided that it was a friend -- not Knox and Sollecito -- who was present at Kercher's murder. 
 
 "Absolutely not," Guede said, answering a question from prosecutor about whether he had discussed the murder with other inmates while in jail. Guede said he does know the inmates in question. 
 
 Guede was asked why he wrote to his lawyer saying that Knox and Sollecito were Kercher's killers, he answered vaguely, saying, "These were thoughts in my head and I decided to write them down after hearing other things. .... It's not up to me to say who killed Meredith.... During my trial I always said who was there that night. There is nothing different." 
 
 Guede has never denied being in the cottage that Knox shared with Kercher in Perugia, Italy, the night she was killed, but has insisted he did not participate in the crime. Instead, he says, he was listening to his iPod while going to the bathroom when intruders murdered Kercher. Nevertheless, his hand prints in blood were on the bedroom wall, his fingerprints were in the room and his DNA was on the victim's bra and purse. 
 
 Guede, 24, was convicted of murder and is serving a 16 year prison sentence. Knox, 23, has been sentenced to 26 years while Sollecito was given 25 years after their conviction in 2009. 
 
 Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, was in court today to hear his testimony. 
 
 "Rudy initially said Amanda and Raffaele weren't there. But months after he was arrested and had a lawyer, his story started changing," Mellas said. 
 
 After today's hearing, Mellas was upbeat. "I think the appeal is going great and when we know DNA it will be even better." 
 
 She called Guede's testimony today "unfortunate." 
 
 ''Rudy had chance to do something good and he didn't do that," she said. "Amanda had wanted to speak directly to Rudy, but she was not allowed." Mellas will visit with Amanda in prison Tuesday. 
 
 Another witness who testified today was Giacomo Benedetti, a friend of Guede's who spoke with him during a police recorded Skype conversation that occurred while he was on the run in Germany after Kercher's death. Days after the murder, Benedetti said that Guede had told him that Knox and her boyfriend were not there at the time of the killing. 
 
 When he testified today, however, he was not asked about the Skype call. He was only asked about Guede's friendship with Alessi.
– With a new appeal hearing looming in the Meredith Kercher murder case, Amanda Knox's ex-boyfriend and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito is not doing Knox any favors. In an interview on Italian TV (parts of which were broadcast on Today this week), Sollecito said he "has some questions" about Knox's apparently odd behavior in the hours before Kercher's body was found, UPI and the Independent report. He says Knox left his apartment in the morning to take a shower, and when she returned hours later, she was "very agitated" and said she found her front door open and blood on the bathroom floor. "Certainly I asked her questions," Sollecito said. "Why did you take a shower? Why did you spend so much time there?" And, he added, "I don't have answers." NBC's legal experts think Sollecito is attempting to distance himself from Knox, but in a blog post earlier this month, Knox herself insisted that "is not the case," noting Sollecito "has plenty of reason for resentment, but not against" her. She did, however, include in her post part of a recent email she received from Sollecito in which he admitted, "I don’t want to be punished for, nor have to continue to justify, those things that regard you and not me. Obviously the evidence demonstrates both of our innocence, but it seems that for the judges and the people this objectivity is of no importance."