Italian appeals court reduces sentences of two Americans convicted of killing police officer

An Italian Court of Appeal Italy's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of two Americans for the murder of an Italian undercover police officer during a botched raid, but reduced their sentences. The retrial was ordered after Italy's top court overturned their original convictions.

The court found Finnegan Lee Elder guilty and sentenced him to 15 years and 2 months in prison and handed down an 11-year sentence to Gabriele Natale-Hjorth.

They were found guilty of July 2019 murder of Carabinieri Vice-Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega. Prosecutors had requested a sentence of 23 years and nine months for Elder and 23 years for Natale-Hjorth.

The teenagers at the time of the murder, the former classmates from the San Francisco Bay Area The two men had met in Rome for a few days of vacation. The fatal confrontation occurred after they agreed to meet a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to be a police informant, to recover money lost in a bad deal. Instead, they were confronted by the police.

Cerciello Riga was stabbed 11 times with a knife brought from a hotel room.

The highest Italian Court of Cassation has ordered a new trial last yearclaiming that it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants, who had limited skills in Italian, understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet an alleged drug trafficker in Rome.

The defense argued that the defendants did not know they were confronting law enforcement when the attack occurred.

The Supreme Court overturned Elder's conviction and 24-year prison sentence and asked the appeals court to consider the charge of resisting a police officer. In Natale-Hjorth's case, the appeals court was asked to consider the charge of aiding and abetting murder.

The assassination of Cerciello Rega, an officer of the paramilitary Carabinieri police, shocked Italy. Cerciello Rega, 35, was considered a national hero.

Prosecutors said Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega with a knife he had taken with him on his trip to Europe and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in their hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice to an alleged murder can also be charged with murder without committing the killing.

Prosecutors argue that young americans The two men hatched a plot involving a stolen bag and cellphone after they unsuccessfully tried to buy $96 worth of cocaine in Rome's Trastevere neighborhood. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified that they paid for the cocaine but did not receive it.

This story has been updated to correct Finnegan Lee Elder's name.