Guessing "here" is UK. Well, I'd be surprised if Guede's action would qualify for manslaughter there. Even in the farfetched case that the knife wounds were "accidental".
And, btw, think a "specific intent to kill" not necessarily the only foundation upon which a murder charge can be layed in UK. Though, yes, a quick Google run seems to confirm at least that "felony murder", perse, has been abolished.
Mens rea is far more complex than black-and-white "intent". In fact, it can be a sin of omission or negligence as much as a sin of positive intent. For example, almost all convictions on a charge of death by dangerous driving do not posit that the accused deliberately set out to drive dangerously or to endanger the life of another hum an. Rather, the mens rea for this offence is usually that the accused
should have realised that his/her driving was outside accepted limits of safety and general acceptability, and that such driving was unduly reckless. Therefore, the strict mens rea for this crime is usually one of negligence and omission, rather than any deliberate thought.
The issue of mens rea was also more complex in the recent trial of Vincent Tabak (for the murder/manslaughter of Jo Yeates) than most people realised. Most of the media erroneously reported that the crucial test for whether Tabak should be found guilty of murder was whether or not he intended to kill Jo Yeates when he choked her and placed his other hand over her mouth. But that was not actually the case at all. The actual test was whether or not Tabak's actions amounted to something that a reasonable person should have expected was likely to result in the death of the victim. Therefore, Tabak
could have been being absolutely truthful when he said he didn't mean to kill Jo Yeates (although in reality I think he was lying in this regard), yet could still have been found guilty of murder. In this case, the mens rea is based on what a reasonable person should have thought to be the consequences of his/her actions: in Tabak's case, either he was negligent in not realising that his actions would likely have resulted in Jo's death, or he was lying when he said he didn't mean to kill her. Either way, this constitutes the mens rea for murder.
So, in the case of the murder of Meredith Kercher, let us suppose that Guede was holding the knife at Meredith's throat and she struggled against it, causing it to make the first neck wound; now, if that had been the only wound and it had been fatal, there would still have been a potential case for murder rather than manslaughter, even if Guede had truthfully claimed that he didn't mean to kill Meredith. A court might reasonably rule that holding a sharp knife to somebody's throat while sexually assaulting them is essentially recklessly endangering the victim's life, and that a reasonable person should therefore have realised that such an action could have resulted in the death of the victim. So in that instance, a murder conviction could have easily resulted, even without the second, clearly-deliberate stab that expedited Meredith's death.
(FWIW, once again, my theory of the moments before the stabbings is that Guede had manoeuvred Meredith at knifepoint onto her front or onto all fours in front of the wardrobe, with Guede kneeling on top of her or behind her with his knife at her throat in one hand. I think that Guede started to remove his trousers (pants) in preparation for a sexual assault, and started to remove Meredith's top and jeans. I think that he may have digitally penetrated her, or was in the process of removing her clothing with his free hand - either way, I think it was at this point that she began to struggle and shout out. I think that this was the catalyst for the first knife wound, which may indeed have been the sadly-inevitable outcome of Meredith struggling against Guede with the knife at her throat. I think that this caused Meredith to scream loudly, and that this is what caused Guede to inflict the second, deeper knife wound - through a mixture of panic, aggression and a desire to stop Meredith from screaming or resisting.)
