ROME - A jury in Italy convicted two American friends in the 2019 slaying in Rome of a police officer in a tragic unraveling of a small-time drug deal gone bad, sentencing them to the maximum life in prison.
More than 12 hours after deliberations began, the jury of two judges and six civilians delivered verdicts and sentences Wednesday night that set off a collective gasp in the courtroom: Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, former schoolmates from the San Francisco area, were each found guilty of murder and four other counts and received Italy's stiffest punishment, life imprisonment.
Each had been charged with homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. Presiding Judge Marina Finiti announced the jury found them guilty of all the charges in the trial indictment.
Prosecutors alleged Elder stabbed Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega 11 times with a knife that he brought with him on his trip to Europe and that Natale-Hjorth สล็อตเอ็กซ์โอ helped him hide the knife in their hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder without materially doing the slaying.
The July 26, 2019, killing of the officer in the storied Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy. Cerciello Rega, 35, was mourned as a national hero.
The slain officer's widow, who held a photo of her dead husband while waiting for the verdict, broke down in tears and hugged his brother, Paolo.
“His integrity was defended,” Rosa Maria Esilio said outside the courtroom, between sobs. “He was everyone's son, everyone's Carabiniere. He was a marvelous husband, he was a marvelous man, a servant of the state who deserves respect and honor. ”
As the defendants were led out of the courtroom to be taken back to their jail cells, Elder's father, Ethan Elder, called out, “Finnegan, I love you.” As the parents left the courtroom, as midnight neared, his mother, Leah Elder, sat on a curb, looking dazed, holding her head.
One of Elder's lawyers, Renato Borzone, called the verdicts “a disgrace for Italy.”
A lawyer for Natale-Hjorth, Fabio Alonzi, said he was speechless, just as his client was. Natale-Hjorth was "completely shocked, he kept telling me he did not understand."
In the courtroom for Natale-Hjorth, who has Italian citizenship as well as U.S. citizenship, were his father and uncle, who lives in Italy.
Cerciello Rega had recently returned from a honeymoon when he was assigned along with partner, officer Andrea Varriale, to follow up on a reported extortion attempt. They went in plainclothes and, for reasons never clear in court testimony, didn't bring their service pistols on the mission.