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image captionGabriel Natale-Hjorth (L) and Finnegan Lee Elder appeared in court last month
Two US students have been found guilty of murdering a police officer in Italy following a year-long trial.
Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, was stabbed to death as he investigated a drug deal gone wrong in central Rome in 2019.
Californian students Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth were both given life sentences.
Elder had admitted to stabbing Rega 11 times but maintained that he acted in self-defence, believing the police officer was a criminal.
Natale-Hjorth, 20, was convicted of helping him to conceal the weapon. Under Italian law, accomplices can also be charged with murder.
Family of California teens accused of killing Italian cop says truth will come out
“I’m stressed,” Elder said to one of his lawyers. At another point during Wednesday’s brief court hearing, Elder took a crucifix he wears on a chain around his neck and kissed it. He also turned to Natale-Hjorth and held out the crucifix to him through a glass partition, motioning heavenward.
Elder was joined in the courtroom by his parents. He and his father crossed their fingers toward each other for luck after the jury went to deliberate. Natale-Hjorth was greeted by his uncle, who lives in Italy.
Updated: 11:06 PM CDT May 5, 2021 By FRANCES D EMILIO, Associated Press A jury in Rome on Wednesday convicted two American friends in the 2019 slaying of a police officer in a tragic unraveling of a small time drug deal gone bad, sentencing them to life in prison.Video above of verdict reactionThe jury 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 indicted on charges of homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. They were found guilty of all counts. The slain officer s widow, who held a photo of her dead husband while waiting for the verdict, sobbed and hugged his brother, Paolo.The defendants were led immediately out of the courtroom after the verdicts were read. As Elder was being walked out, his father Ethan Elder called out, Finnegan, I l
A jury in Rome on Wednesday convicted two American friends in the 2019 slaying of a police officer in a tragic unraveling of a small time drug deal gone bad,.
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