Rome jury convicts 2 US men in death of police officer
Each man, now ages 21 and 20, were given life sentences
ROME — A jury convicted two American friends Wednesday in the 2019 slaying of a police officer in a tragic unraveling of a small-time drug deal gone bad, sentencing them to the maximum life in prison.
The jury of two judges and six civilians deliberated more than 12 hours before delivering the verdicts against Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, 20, handing them Italy’s stiffest sentence.
Elder and Natale-Hjorth were found guilty of all charges: homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. There was a gasp in the Rome courtroom as the presiding judge, Marina Finiti, read the verdict.
Prosecutors alleged that Elder stabbed Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega 11 times with a knife that he brought with him on his trip to Europe from California and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in their hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder, even without materially doing the slaying.
The July 26, 2019, killing of the officer in the Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy. Cerciello Rega, 35, was mourned as a national hero.
His widow, who held a photo of her dead husband while waiting for the verdict, broke down in tears and hugged his brother, Paolo.
“His integrity was defended,” Rosa Maria Esilio said outside the courtroom. “He was everyone’s son, everyone’s Carabinieri. He was a marvelous husband, he was a marvelous man, a servant of the state who merited respect and honor.”
The defendants were led out of the courtroom immediately after the verdicts were read. As Elder was being walked out, his father, Ethan Elder, called out, “Finnegan, I love you.” Both of his parents looked stunned.
Elder’s lawyer, Renato Borzone, called the verdict against his client “a disgrace for Italy.” Natale-Hjorth’s lawyer, Fabio Alonzi, said he was speechless.
For the brief final hearing before deliberations Wednesday, the two Californians were allowed to sit with their lawyers before the case went to the jury.
Cerciello Rega had recently returned from a honeymoon when he was assigned along with partner, Officer Andrea Varriale, to follow up on a reported extortion attempt. They went in plain clothes and didn’t carry their service pistols.
Prosecutors contend the young Americans concocted a plot involving a stolen bag and cellphone after their failed attempt to buy cocaine with $96 in Rome’s Trastevere nightlife district. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified they had paid for the cocaine, but didn’t receive it.
Both defendants contended they acted in self-defense.
During the trial, which began Feb. 26, 2020, the Americans told the court they thought that Cerciello Rega and Varriale were thugs out to assault them on a dark, deserted street. The officers wore casual summer clothes, not uniforms, and the defendants insisted the officers never showed police badges.
Varriale, who suffered a back injury in a scuffle with Natale-Hjorth while his partner was grappling with Elder, testified that the officers did identify themselves as Carabinieri.
As the trial neared its end, Elder’s lawyer, Borzone, told the court his client saw a world filled with enemies due to psychiatric problems and that something “short-circuited” when Elder was confronted by the officer.