Two Americans convicted of killing Italian police officer receive reduced sentences

CNN — (CNN) — 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 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 original life sentences both men were given 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 sentence to 22 years.

“Elder admitted killing Rega, but both he and Natale-Hjorth said they acted in self-defense because they thought (Rega and another police officer), who were not wearing uniforms, were thugs targeting them after a failed attempt to buy drugs brought them down,” the news agency reported at the time.

Italy’s highest court of cassation ordered a retrial in 2023.

“The decision taken today has brought into focus a legal classification of the conduct on that tragic night that is certainly more consistent with Finnegan’s actual responsibility,” Renato Borzone and Roberto Capra, the Americans’ Italian lawyers, said in their statement.

They added that the court had not yet announced its reasons for the verdict. However, they added that the court had acknowledged that Elder could not have known that Rega was a police officer at the time of the incident, which allowed the case to be “viewed quite differently”.

“It is regrettable that we had to wait five court instances before the young American’s statements were accepted since his first questioning,” the joint statement said.

Elder’s father, Ethan, said in the statement that it should not be forgotten that this process involves the tragedy of a person’s death, but he felt it was right to bring the “truth of the facts” to light 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 attempt to block the road,” Ethan said in the statement. “But he could not rest because no one believed him.”

“I hope that while he will have to pay for his mistake, it will also give him hope for the future,” the statement ends.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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