The fact is, if I try to explain how I see the topic, it is something that must be contextualized and linked to the cross questioning of Filomena Romanelli. I didn't remember this Filomena's voice in the intercepted call, but the misunderstanding in a voice conversation can happen also between people both native of the same mother tongue. Think for example at the sound of words like "I called" and "I'll call". Is it possible to mistake one for another while you speak on the cell phone? It is certainly possible. The point is that you can never exclude a possible misunderstanding of words, if you base your judgement solely on an assessmnt the understanding of language. The level of comprehension and speaking of language actually is not the main factor in determining if the people understand each other in conversation. The understanding in a conversation, in this case dealing with basic language functions, is not something directly linked to the command of language but in the cases at the extreme ends, when the speakers both lack even of the very basic rudiments of the second language, certaily not the case of Amanda and Filomena. When people have a base or intermediate level of understanding they have the resources to understand each other properly on a topics that require the use of basic functions and basic grammar distinctions.
Whether they misunderstood each other, it is not something that we can speculate about based on their language skills, because they both have command of basic levels and they have resources to understand each other.
It is more important to examine their testimonies and recollections, their contextual actions and conversation, and their phone records.
I'm not sure I agree here. On the one hand you acknowledge that, even amongst native speakers, there's still plenty of scope for misunderstanding, especially via a phone call where the words may not be that clear anyway. On the other, you seem to say that it's only at an extremely basic level that someone's grasp of another language has any impact on their ability to understand and be understood by another person. I don't see any logical reason to accept that: it seems almost self-evident that if someone is talking in a language they're not fluent in, there's a much greater likelihood that they'll misunderstand or be misunderstood when speaking in that language. Obviously, that handicap would decrease in proportion to their fluency in that language, but it would always be an additional element in possible misunderstanding which wouldn't apply to the native speaker.
In this case, I would say that both Amanda and Filomena were at a basic level in Italian and English, so much so that the translator gives up and just says she can't understand Filomena's English. Filomena can't express herself well enough to be understood in English, so she switches to Italian. That in itself is an indication her English was pretty poor.
I remember you yourself saying in a previous post that Katody (I think it was) had misunderstood you because, not being a native speaker of English, you hadn't expressed yourself very well. Yet your English is excellent, and you were also expressing yourself in writing. How much more difficult would it have been for Filomena and Amanda (or Amanda and any of the others, for that matter) to understand each other, with their far more basic knowledge of each other's languages and in a spoken (even a telephone) conversation?
Amanda had called just one of the Meredith's phones, that was ringing for only 16 seconds. Then after she called again Meredith for 3 and 4 seconds. Filomena recalled several things, not only about previous or future calls to Meredith, abut also about Amanda's locations and movements in that moment. Amanda gave a recollection in her e-mail and witness reports. This is the material to be used for an assessment.
I'm not sure whether Filomena called Meredith's phones at all, but if she did, it seems she only called the English phone (since Massei seems to give a full list of the calls made to the Italian phone). So either Filomena only called Meredith's English phone, or she didn't call her at all, making her even 'guiltier' in this respect than Amanda. I believe Amanda also said she called the English phone because it was the one Meredith always carried with her, and since Massei says there were 'numerous' calls to this phone but only a handful to the other, it appears many other people agreed.
I think your other points are misleading: 16 seconds is quite a long time to let a call ring for (probably about the time an answerphone normally kicks in) and the following two calls went through to an out of service message and voicemail, thus accounting for their short duration.
