Italian jury convicts 2 Americans in slaying of police officer
The jury deliberated more than 12 hours before delivering the verdicts late Wednesday against 21-year-pld Finnegan Lee Elder and 20-year-old Gabriel Natale.
Credit: AP
Finnegan Lee Elder listens as the verdict is read, in the trial for the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer in summer 2019, in Rome, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) Author: Associated Press Updated: 5:31 PM CDT May 5, 2021
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.
Two Americans have been jailed for life in Italy for the 2019 murder of a police officer.
Finnegan Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were both handed Italy’s harshest prison sentence after being found guilty by a jury on all charges for the killing of Carabinieri Mario Cerciello Rega in Rome.
Prosecutors said Elder stabbed Rega 11 times with a knife he had brought with him on his trip to Europe from California.
Natale-Hjorth was accused of helping him to hide the knife in their hotel room afterwards.
Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder even without materially doing the killing.
2 Americans Convicted Of Killing Police Officer In Italy, Sentenced To Life In Prison
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.
Italian Court Hands 2 US Tourists Life Sentences for Murdering Police Officer as Teens
ROME Two American tourists were sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court on Wednesday for the 2019 murder of a policeman near their Rome hotel in a case that shook the nation.
Finnegan Lee Elder, who was 19 at the time, had admitted to stabbing Mario Cerciello Rega in the early hours of July 26, 2019, while his friend Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, then 18, was tussling with another police officer.
However, the pair say they had acted in self defense because they thought the two policemen, who were not in uniform at the time, were thugs out to get them after a botched attempt to buy drugs.
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Jury in Rome convicts 2 American friends in slaying of police officer
The two young men, both from the San Francisco Bay area, are sentenced to life in prison for killing the officer, who was stabbed 11 times with a knife.
By FRANCES D EMILIOAssociated Press
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Finnegan Lee Elder listens as the verdict is read Wednesday in Rome in the trial of him and a friend for the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer in 2019.
Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
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.