I agree. IIRC one of the defence experts suggested it was an assault which escalated gradually, and given Rudy's alleged previous behaviour and the fact he was most likely surprised in the house by Meredith returning, I think that's quite a likely scenario. It seems much more probable that, let's say, she screamed and he rushed over to try to silence her and things progressed from there, than that he suddenly decided to rush in and murder her on the spur of the moment.
Another thing I disagree with in Charlie's scenario is the length of time the attack would have lasted. Although it might be possible to say that the three neck wounds were made within a short space of time from one another, I can't see how it's possible to say how long the assault might have lasted before that, since there would have been no signs of it. IMO, it's more likely there was a fairly extended period of time before the wounds were made, that they were made at a particular point during the struggle (probably when he was behind her and trying to remove her bra) and that the assault stopped at that point once it was evident how seriously she was injured. Rudy fetching the towels also fits better with this scenario.
At any rate, I don't see how it's possible to rule out the possibility of a more gradual assault which led (perhaps unintentionally) to murder. For me, one of the major problems with an attack that was over by, let's say, 21:05 is that I don't believe Rudy would've hung around for nearly an hour afterwards to take the cell phones. Looking at the evidence over-all, Rudy's alleged previous behaviour and the way the attack most likely started (as an interrupted burglary, not an intentional rape and murder) an assault which became gradually more serious over a period of, say, 30-40 minutes seems at least as likely as a very short deliberate attack.
