US students jailed for life over murder of Italian police officer in drug deal gone wrong

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US citizen Finnegan Lee Elder (C) reacts after the court decision on May 5, 2021, during his trial - TIZIANA FABI /AFP
US citizen Finnegan Lee Elder (C) reacts after the court decision on May 5, 2021, during his trial - TIZIANA FABI /AFP

Two young Americans have been sentenced to life in prison by a court in Rome after being found guilty of knifing to death an Italian policeman and assaulting another officer in an altercation sparked by a drug deal that went awry.

Finnegan Lee Elder, now 21, had admitted to stabbing the officer after a night out in the capital, while his friend Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 20, injured a second officer during the fracas.

They insisted they had been acting in self-defence because they were convinced the two plain clothes policemen were in fact thugs attacking them in the wake of the botched drug deal.

But that justification was dismissed by the jury in the trial, which handed down its decision close to midnight on Wednesday after hours of deliberation.

Their lawyers immediately announced they would appeal the verdict and sentence, setting the stage for a legal process that could drag on for years, as it did for another American accused of murder in Italy - Amanda Knox.

Defendants in Italy have the right to two levels of appeal, meaning that cases such as this can last for many years.

The two young men, both from California, were also found guilty of attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying a knife without just cause.

The killing of police officers in Italy is extremely rare.

The murder of Mario Cerciello Rega, a 35-year-old vice-brigadier in the Carabinieri who had just returned from his honeymoon, shocked many Italians and sparked national mourning.

The officer was hailed as a tragic hero and his funeral was broadcast live on television.

His colleague, police officer Andrea Varriale, was injured in the confrontation.

Rosa Maria Esilio, widow of Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, holds a photograph of her husband - Alessandra Tarantino /AP
Rosa Maria Esilio, widow of Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, holds a photograph of her husband - Alessandra Tarantino /AP

The Americans were on holiday in Rome in 2019 when they decided to go for a night out in the popular Trastevere district of the capital, a labyrinth of cobbled lanes lined with bars, pubs and restaurants popular with foreign students.

They drank beers and downed a few shots before deciding to buy some cocaine, encountering a go-between who said he had contacts with a drug dealer.

They paid €80 for a small amount of cocaine but later discovered that it was an aspirin-like tablet.

They managed to grab the backpack of the go-between, who fled. The Americans said they would give it back to him if he refunded their money.

They told the court they arranged to meet him outside their hotel.

But the go-between, who was an informer, had in the meantime called the police to report the theft of his backpack.

Instead of him turning up for the rendezvous, the two police officers appeared, wearing plain clothes.

The officers challenged the two tourists and a confrontation ensued. The Americans told the trial that they thought they were being attacked by thugs or drug dealers because the officers did not identify themselves as police.

But Varriale, the officer who survived the altercation, told the court that he and his colleague did identify themselves clearly.

"We approached them from the front... we presented ourselves as belonging to the Carabinieri,” Varriale told the court. “We approached and unfortunately they immediately assaulted us.”

Rosa Maria Esilio, widow of slain Carabinieri military police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, reacts after U.S. citizens Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth were found guilty - REMO CASILLI /REUTERS
Rosa Maria Esilio, widow of slain Carabinieri military police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, reacts after U.S. citizens Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth were found guilty - REMO CASILLI /REUTERS

The trial, which began in February last year, hinged on those differing accounts.

In the fight that ensued, Elder wrestled with Cerciello Rega, stabbing him 11 times with a 7in-long army-style knife that he was carrying. He had brought it with him on holiday from California.

The officer died shortly afterwards in hospital. Elder, then 19, told the trial he feared he was being strangled.

Natale-Hjorth, then 18, fought with Varriale, who suffered an injury to his back.

The former school friends from the San Francisco Bay area then ran back to their hotel where Elder cleaned the knife and Natale-Hjorth hid it behind a ceiling panel in their room.

The case invited some comparisons with the trial of Amanda Knox, the Seattle student accused of murdering Meredith Kercher, her British housemate, in Perugia, Umbria.

Questions were asked as to why neither of the officers was carrying their service pistols.

There was controversy when a photo emerged of Natale-Hjorth blindfolded and with his hands cuffed behind his back during questioning at a police station in Rome.

Ms Knox had alleged that she was cuffed round the head and verbally abused when she was questioned about the murder of Ms Kercher in a police station in Perugia. After a tortuous legal process, she was definitely acquitted of murder and sexual assault and returned home to Seattle.

Maria Sabina Calabretta, the prosecutor in the Rome trial, had dismissed defence arguments that Elder's constant fear of attack, part of a history of psychiatric issues, led him to stab Cerciello Rega.

A defence lawyer had told the court that Elder saw the world as being filled with enemies and that something "short-circuited" when he was confronted by the officers. Francesco Petrelli, a lawyer who defended Natale-Hjorth, said: “This was a technically flawed sentence both in fact and in law…which has left us shocked.”

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