Two California students, 20 and 21, are found guilty of murdering Italian cop with a Rambo knife in botched drug deal while on vacation and sentenced to life in prison
Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, 20, were convicted by a jury in Rome on Wednesday
The jury recommended a life sentence for the murder of Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35
Elder stabbed Rega 11 times with a 7-inch blade on July 26, 2019 after a drug deal went awry
Natale-Hjorth, whom Elder knew from high school in Mill Valley, California, helped hide the knife
The defendants maintained that they acted in self defense when confronted by Rega and his partner