Judge orders one to trial in UK student's killing

PERUGIA, Italy (CNN) -- A judge ruled Tuesday that the case against one of three suspects in the slaying last November of British student Meredith Kercher will go to trial separately and on a fast track.

Judge Paolo Micheli ruled that proceedings can go forward against Rudy Guede.

Micheli will rule later whether two other suspects -- U.S. student Amanda Knox and her Italian former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito -- will also face trial.

All three deny the charges. The judge scheduling the next hearing for September 26.

Guede's lawyers' had asked the judge to separate his trial from that of Knox and Sollecito and grant him fast-track proceedings, which could lead to a lesser and quicker sentence if he is convicted.

Guede, an Italian originally from the Ivory Coast, and Knox arrived at the courthouse Tuesday in separate vans and were led into the courtroom by a throng of prison guards.

Guede was handcuffed, but Knox was not. Knox was wearing jeans and a white shirt. It was the first time reporters had gotten a glimpse of her since her November 6 arrest.

Kercher's father, mother and sister were also in court, and for the first time came face to face with two of the alleged killers.

Sollecito did not appear in court. His lawyer said he was not compelled to appear, and decided to stay away to avoid the media madness surrounding the case.

Knox and Sollecito have been jailed since November in connection with the young woman's death on November 2 in the villa she shared with Knox in Perugia.

Guede was arrested in November in Germany and was extradited in December to Italy, where he's been held in jail ever since.

Kercher, an exchange student at Perugia's university, was found dead with a stab wound to her neck. Prosecutors allege that Guede committed sexual violence on her, with the help of Knox and Sollecito.

The prosecutors say the three then strangled and stabbed Kercher, and took 300 euros, two credit cards and two cell phones in an attempt to make the scene appear as a robbery.

Guede admits he was in the apartment on the day Kercher was killed, but said an unknown assailant killed her while he was out of the room.

Police, however, say a bloody footprint left by a Nike shoe next to Kercher's body came from Sollecito -- who at the time was Knox's boyfriend. Authorities have also said they found traces of blood belonging to both Knox and Kercher mixed together in a bathroom adjacent to the room where Kercher died.

Defense lawyers representing Sollecito said during a brief break from Tuesday's preliminary court hearing that they had asked Micheli to rule some of the prosecution's evidence incomplete or invalid.

They said the charges against the suspects, particularly against their client, are not specific enough.