Italian court again reduces penalties for US visitors in relation to the death of a police officer

On Wednesday, an Italian appellate court again lowered the prison terms meted out to the two American tourists who were initially given life sentences for the 2019 police officer murder in a case that shocked Italy.

After a failed heroin deal, Finnegan Lee Elder, then 19 years old, fatally stabbed Mario Cerciello Rega in central Rome. The court decided that Elder should spend 15 years and two months in prison.

The 18-year-old buddy of his, Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, was sentenced to 11 years and 4 months. During the attack, he was fighting with another police officer rather than using the knife.

Their case has been remanded by multiple Italian courts. Elder and Natale-Hjorth were given life sentences in 2021; however, in 2022, their sentences were shortened to 24 and 22 years, respectively.

But in 2023, Italy’s highest court declared that certain of the case’s accusations lacked adequate evidence, and thus ordered a new trial.

Because of Italy’s multi-tiered appeals procedure, which can cause cases to drag out for years, prosecutors can challenge this most recent verdict. They had requested for harsher imprisonment than the court handed down on Wednesday.

The defense attorneys applauded the recent decision.
“Compared to the previous sentences, this one is more equitable,” Elder’s attorney Renato Borzone stated. “It took five years, but we finally have a court that can sleep easily because it has made the right decision in good conscience.”

During a vacation in Italy in 2019, the two Americans, who were both from California, attempted to purchase drugs from a local vendor in a popular tourist area in Rome.

They claim to have been duped, but they were able to seize a suitcase from a middleman as he attempted to flee.

After that, they decided to meet the dealer again to get their money back in exchange for the bag, but instead, two plainclothes police officers turned up.

While Elder has acknowledged killing Cerciello Rega, he and Natale-Hjorth have maintained that they acted in self-defense, believing the two police officers to be thugs out to get them.

According to the police, Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega, 35, eleven times with an 18-centimeter (7-inch) blade when he was unarmed.

According to Italian media, the dealer was an informant who had called in the theft of his luggage and requested police intervention.