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May 06, 2021
published at 1:17 AMReuters
US citizens Finnegan Lee Elder (second from left) and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth (fifth from left) wait for the verdict at the courthouse in Rome, Italy.
Reuters
ROME - Two American tourists were sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court on Wednesday (May 5) 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 defence 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.
2 American College Students Get Life in Prison for Killing Italian Police Officer
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According to reports, two American college students were sentenced to life in prison for the stabbing death of a plainclothes officer in Italy during a botched drug transaction.
Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were found guilty by a jury in Rome for the death of Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega. Elder reportedly stabbed the officer 11 times after they attempted to purchase cocaine went awry. Natale-Hjorth helped Elder hide the murder weapon. Under Italian law, being an accomplice can result in a murder charge.
Despite the verdict, both Elder and Natale-Hjorth maintained that they didn t know Rega was a plainclothes officer. According to the defendants, they only acted in self-defense.
THE STANDARD
WORLD
By Reuters | May 6th 2021
The pair say they had acted in self-defence because they thought the two policemen, who were not in uniform at the time, were thugs. [Reuters]
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-defence 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.
Americans Handed Life Sentences In Italy For Cop Murder By Alexandria Sage
05/05/21 AT 8:31 PM
An Italian court convicted two young Americans Wednesday for the murder of a police officer while they were on a summer holiday in Rome, with both handed life sentences.
Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, had admitted stabbing Mario Cerciello Rega during a late-night encounter in July 2019, while out with his friend Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20.
Prosecutors cast it as a brutal, unprovoked attack in which Elder, then 19, stabbed Cerciello 11 times with a seven-inch camping knife on a dark street near the Americans hotel. US citizen Gabriel Natale-Hjorth is escorted by police after the court decision in his trial on charges of murdering Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome Photo: AFP / Tiziana FABI