Two Americans convicted of killing Italian police officer have their sentences reduced

CNN
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An Italian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of two Americans accused of killing an Italian police officer in 2019, according to a joint statement from the lawyers representing them in Italy.

The court sentenced Finnegan Lee Elder to 15 years and two months in prison and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth to 11 years and four months in prison — further reductions from the life sentences originally handed down to both men in 2021 after a jury convicted them of murder, according to Craig Peters, the U.S. attorney representing the Elder family.

Elder and Natale-Hjorth were arrested in 2019 while on vacation in Rome for the murder of Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, who was stabbed 11 times with a knife during a botched drug deal, police said at the time.

In 2022, Reuters reported that the appeals court reduced Elder's sentence to 24 years and Natale-Hjorth's to 22 years.

“Elder admitted killing Rega, but he and Natale-Hjorth said they acted in self-defense because they believed (Rega and another police officer) who were not in uniform were thugs who wanted to arrest them after a failed drug buy attempt,” the news agency reported at the time.

Italy's highest court of cassation has ordered a new trial in 2023.

“Today's decision has brought to light a legal characterization of the conduct of that tragic night that is certainly more in line with Finnegan's real responsibilities,” Renato Borzone and Roberto Capra, the Americans' Italian lawyers, said in their statement.

They added that the court had not yet given reasons for its verdict. However, they added that the fact that the court had acknowledged that at the time of the incident, Elder could not have known that Rega was a police officer allowed the case to be “viewed in a completely different light”.

“It is regrettable that we had to wait five levels of jurisdiction to see what the young American said since his first interrogation recognized,” the joint statement said.

Elder's father, Ethan, said in the statement that it should be remembered that this trial is about the tragedy of a person's death, but that he felt it was right to bring out the truth of the facts to help his son.

“From the first moment, (Elder) stated that he did not understand that they were (police officers) and that he was responding to an attempted blockade,” Ethan said in the statement. “But he could not rest because no one believed him.”

“I hope that even though he will pay for his mistake, it will also give him hope for the future,” the statement concluded.

This is a developing story and will be updated.