Italy appeals court upholds conviction of 2 Americans in death of policeman but reduces sentences

ROME — An Italian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of two American men for the murder of a plainclothes Italian police officer during a botched sting operation, but significantly reduced their sentences.

The new verdict, handed down after Italy’s highest court annulled original sentenceswon the acceptance of the men’s families and the disappointment of the officer’s widow.

Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth were found guilty of the July 2019 murder of Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega and, following the first trial, both were sentenced to life imprisonment, the harshest sentence imposed in Italy.

Those sentences were reduced on appeal to Italy’s highest Court of Cassation, which last year ordered a new trial. On Wednesday, the appeals court ruled Finnegan and sentenced him to 15 years and 2 months in prison; He sentenced Natale-Hjorth to 11 years and four months, as well as a fine of 800 euros ($863).

“I don’t think we could ask for a better, more reasonable decision today,” said Ethan Elder, father of Finnegan Lee Elder.

Teenagers at the time of the murder, the former schoolmates from the San Francisco Bay area had gathered in Rome for a few days of vacation. The fatal confrontation took place after they agreed to meet with a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to be a police informant, to recover money lost in a bad drug deal. Instead, they were confronted by two officers.

Cerciello Riga was stabbed 11 times with a knife brought from the hotel room.

In ordering a new trial, the Court of Cassation said it had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants, with limited knowledge of the Italian language, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet the alleged suspect. drug trafficker.

The defense had argued that the defendants did not know they were confronting police when the attack occurred, an argument that was repeated during the retrial.

Prosecutor Bruno Giangiacomo said his office would wait to read the court’s written reasoning before deciding on a possible appeal. In Italy, both defendants and prosecutors can appeal at all sentencing levels.

“Both aggravating factors that increased the penalty were excluded,” Giangiacomo said after the verdict. “This could be a delicate point where we can think about an appeal to the Court of Cassation.” Prosecutors had asked that Finnegan be sentenced to 23 years and nine months and Natale-Hjorth to 23 years.

Rosa María Esilio, Cerciello Rega’s widow, was “devastated” by the verdict, said her lawyer Massimo Ferrandino.

“For five years he has been carrying enormous pain. She was the one who closed her husband’s eyes in the morgue. You can also imagine her pain today,” she said.

The murder of the officer of the historic Carabinieri paramilitary police force shocked Italy, and Cerciello Rega, 35, was mourned as a national hero.

Prosecutors alleged that Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega with a knife he brought with him on his trip to Europe and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide in his hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice to an alleged murder can also be charged with murder without having committed the murder.

But lawyer Francesco Petrelli, who represented Natale-Hjorth, said the appeals court clearly recognized there was a different level of involvement on his client’s part.

“There was a reduction, mainly of responsibility,” he said, adding that “it went from intentional malice to negligence.”

Prosecutors maintain that the young Americans hatched a plot involving a stolen purse and cellphone after their failed attempt to buy cocaine for 80 euros ($96) in Rome’s Trastevere nightlife district. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified that they had paid for the cocaine but did not receive it.

In a statement issued by attorneys following the new verdicts, Leah Elder, Finnegan Elder’s mother, insisted that her son was prepared to take responsibility for his actions and move forward.

“Unfortunately, this trial is related to the tragedy of the death of a person, a serious event that has marked and will forever mark the lives of all the families involved,” he stated. “Bringing out the truth of the facts would help Finnegan take full responsibility for the pain he caused with his tragic reaction. I hope that, even as he pays for his mistake, he also opens himself to hope for the future.”

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Barry reported from Soave, Italy.