An appeals court in Italy on Wednesday upheld the convictions but reduced the prison sentences of two American visitors who were initially sentenced to life in prison for the 2019 murder of a police officer, a case that shocked Italy.
Their original convictions were overturned by Italy’s highest court and a new trial ordered, leading to Wednesday’s results. Finnegan Lee Elder was given a new prison sentence of 15 years and two months, while Gabriele Natale-Hjorth received a prison sentence of 11 years and four months and a fine of 800 euros ($863).
The two were found guilty in July 2019 of the death of Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega.
“I don’t think we could ask for a more sensible, better decision today,” said Ethan Elder, Finnegan Elder’s father.
Elder and Natale-Hjorth were teenagers on vacation from San Francisco at the time of Cerciello Rega’s death. The fatal confrontation occurred when they arranged to meet a small-time drug dealer who turned out to be a police informant to collect money lost in a drug deal gone wrong. Instead, they encountered two police officers.
The policeman, a 35-year-old newly married man, was stabbed eleven times in a hotel room, causing a media sensation. Cerciello Rega was mourned as a national hero.
Elder admitted killing the officer but said he acted in self-defense because he believed Cerciello Rega was a criminal who wanted to attack the teens. During the recent trial, the defense reiterated its earlier claim that the defendants did not know at the time that they were being investigated by law enforcement.
Cerciello Rega’s widow, Rosa Maria Esilio, was devastated by the verdict, according to her lawyer Massimo Ferrandino.
“For five years she endured great pain. She was the one who closed her husband’s eyes in the morgue. You can imagine her pain even today,” he said.
The defense welcomed the new verdict.
“This verdict is fairer than the previous ones,” said Renato Borzone, Elder’s lawyer. “It took five years, but now we finally have a court that can sleep soundly because it made the right decision in good conscience.”
Prosecutors said Elder attacked Cerciello Rega with a knife he brought with him on his European trip, and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in her hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice to an accused murder can be charged with murder even if he did not commit the crime.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Press.
