Finnegan Lee Elder listens as the verdict is read, in the trial for the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer in summer 2019, in Rome, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. Mr Cerciello Rega, 35, was mourned as a national hero. He said the Elders were fighters and would continue to fight for justice for their son. "He was a marvelous husband, he was a marvelous man, a servant of the state who deserves respect and honor.". Peters said he hoped Elder could "hang on and hang in so we can get this injustice corrected.". Peters told CBS News that the couple were "doing the best they can." Elder's lawyer, Renato Borzone, immediately announced they would appeal the verdict. A jury convicted two American friends Wednesday in the 2019 slaying of a police officer in a tragic unraveling of a small time drug deal gone bad, This is a sad day for justice. The Elder family attorney, Craig Peters, is now in Rome for the verdict. Judge Marina Finiti announces to the lawyers that the jury will be gathering to decide the verdict (Gregorio Borgia/AP). Earlier on the night of the homicide, Elder and Natale-Hjorth left their 4-star hotel in search of cocaine. She attended each hearing in this case, clutching her husband's photo. Although Natale-Hjorth did not handle the knife, after the incident he helped Elder hide the weapon in their hotel room. Finnegan Elder Lee racconta di essere stato picchiato e minacciato dai carabinieri dopo l'arresto per il delitto di un anno fa aggiornato alle 22:39 08 luglio 2020 A verdict is expected soon in the case of two Bay Area men who are accused of murdering a police officer in Rome two years ago. Natale-Hjorth stood did not display any emotion; his lawyer Fabio Alonzi would later say his client was "completely shocked, he kept telling me he did not understand. One of two young Americans convicted Wednesday of killing a Rome police officer "is in a bad place" after being sentenced to life imprisonment, Italy's stiffest sentence, a lawyer and spokesman for his family told CBS News. But in his testimony last year, Varriale disputed that, saying, "We approached them from the front... We presented ourselves as belonging to the carabinieri (police)… We approached and unfortunately they immediately assaulted us.". At the time of the slaying, Elder was 19 and traveling through Europe without his family, while Natale-Hjorth, then 18, was spending the summer with his Italian grandparents, who live near Rome. The widow of the carabiniere: “Sentence will not give me back Mario, he died as a servant of the state, like a martyr. A jury in Rome has begun deliberations in the trial of two young American men charged with killing an Italian police officer near the hotel where they were staying while on holiday in 2019. Finnegan Lee Elder arrives for a hearing in the trial where he is accused of slaying the Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, on March 6, 2021, in Rome, Italy. Finnegan Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, are charged with homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. Elder and Natale-Hjorth were found guilty of all charges: homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. The officers wore casual summer clothes and not uniforms, and the defendants insisted the officers never showed police badges. Elder looked stunned when the verdict was read out on Wednesday night, May 5. They went to the popular Trastevere neighborhood, where they met an intermediary who brought them to a drug dealer. During the trial, which began on February 26 2020, the Americans told the court they thought that Mr Cerciello Rega and Mr Varriale were thugs or mobsters out to assault them on a dark, deserted street. On May 5, 2021, Finnegan Lee Elder listens as the verdict is read. Finnegan Elder, right, shows a crucifix to co-defendant Gabriel Natale-Hjorth before a jury began deliberating (Gregorio Borgia/AP) By Frances D'Emilio, Associated Press May 05 2021 10:56 AM Judge Marina Finiti indicated the verdicts could come later on Wednesday or on Thursday. Finnegan Lee Elder listens as the verdict is read, in the trial for the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer in summer 2019, in Rome, May 5, 2021. Elder's mother Leah was visibly shaken when the verdict was delivered, and leaned against her husband Nathan for support. The first Court of Assizes of the Court of Rome sentenced the two twenty-year-old Americans after a council chamber. "His integrity was defended," she told reporters outside the courtroom. Prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta has asked the court to convict both defendants and to mete out Italy’s stiffest punishment of life imprisonment. Finnegan Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, are charged with homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. During the incident, Elder stabbed officer Mario Cerciello Rega 11 times with a 7-inch military-style knife he had brought from the United States, while Natale-Hjorth fought with another officer, Andrea Varriale. Elder did not testify during the trial, but said in a statement to the court that he would never forgive himself for taking Cerciello's life, and described feeling "shock and terror" on the night of the attack. Copyright © 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. The defense in turn tried to discredit Varriale's testimony, contending that he had lied about being armed during the time of the attack, and that he was therefore an unreliable witness. The Elder family attorney, Craig Peters, is now in Rome for the verdict. Finnegan Elder touches a crucifix he has around his neck (Gregorio Borgia/AP). To give life sentences to two 19-year-old boys is shameful. Elder and his co-defendant Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 20, got into an altercation with two police officers in July 2019 while the two friends — then teenagers — were on vacation in Rome. Italy's justice is strong with the weak and weak with the strong.". In an attempt to get their money back, they snatched the intermediary's backpack, then called him and demanded drugs and money to return it. 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DAN NOYES: Officer Cerciello Rega died after suffering 11 stab wounds, leaving behind a widow he had married just the month before. The two San Francisco-area men were also convicted of attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. Former classmates from the San Francisco Bay area, the two had met up in Rome for what was supposed to be couple of days of sightseeing and nights out. A Belgian farmer accidentally moved the French border, 2 Americans convicted of killing police officer in Italy, German priests to defy the Vatican, bless gay couples, Americans convicted of killing Rome police officer plan appeal, World's largest jewelry maker will no longer use mined diamonds, California Privacy/Information We Collect. CTV World News, your source for the latest international breaking news and headlines, today's world breaking news from around the globe. Gabriel Natale-Hjorth wears a face mask in his cell in the courtroom Gregorio Borgia/AP). "What happened is unheard of," he said. Elder testified that he believed the obese victim might strangle him before repeatedly stabbing him. Americans convicted in death of Italian offic... U.S. citizens Finnegan Lee Elder, right, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, during their trial in Rome on April 26, 2021. Rosa Maria Esilio, the widow of the slain officer, began sobbing as the verdict was delivered, and clung to Cerciello's brother. © 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. At another point during Wednesday’s brief court hearing, Elder took a crucifix he wears on a chain around his neck and kissed it. The families of the two young men were present in the courtroom during the verdict. FINNEGAN ELDER: After several hits, he grabbed my hand, the one that I was holding the knife with, and tried to turn it against me. The two Californians on trial were allowed out of steel-barred defendant cages inside the courtroom to sit with their lawyers before the case went to the jury, which consists of presiding judge Finiti, a second judge and six civilian jurors. The Elder family had no immediate comment but family spokesman and Finnegan Elder’s uncle Sean Elder told the Chronicle that the 2016 incident was part “a … Mr Varriale, who suffered a back injury in a scuffle with Natale-Hjorth while his partner was grappling with Elder, testified that the officers did identify themselves as Carabinieri. Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, admitted to stabbing Mario Cerciello Rega during a late-night encounter in July 2019 while out with his friend Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20. Ethan Elder, father of Finnegan Lee Elder, is hugged by his wife Leah as they attend the opening of the trial for the killing of Italian policeman Mario Cerciello Rega in … Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, left, and Finnegan Lee Elder, both from the United States, listen to Prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta during a hearing in the trial where they are accused of slaying the Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, while on vacation in Italy in July 2019, in Rome, Saturday, March 6, 2021. "I have never seen something like this in 40 years of career. ", "The message sent by these judges is loud and clear," Peters wrote. 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According to the California visitors, they believed Rega and his companion, Andrea Varriale, were thugs attacking them on a dark street when the deadly battle ensued. 1 of 24 Finnegan Lee Elder listens as the verdict is read, in the trial for the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer in summer 2019, in Rome, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. Confused how they could believe a liar and concoct a story," his spokesman Craig Peters, who is in Rome with Elder's parents, told CBS News. The pair alleged that the two policemen, whom they believed to be thugs, attacked them first from behind. Finnegan Lee Elder, who was 19 at the time, had admitted to stabbing Mario Cerciello Rega in the early hours of July 26, 2019, while his friend Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, then 18, was tussling with another police officer. The defendants were led immediately out of the courtroom after the verdicts were read. Enter email address Under Italian law, an accomplice to a murder can also be charged with murder. Officers Cerciello and Varriale were dispatched to the meeting point. In a statement released to the press, Peters said the verdict lacked both reason and compassion, and subjected "these boys to a sentence that is reserved for unredeemable, career criminals that commit premeditated killings. They were convicted in the 2019 stabbing death of Italian Carabinieri police officer Mario Cerciello Rega. The July 26 2019 death of the officer from the Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy. Gregorio Borgia / AP As the verdict was delivered, Elder bowed his head and leaned against a desk in obvious distress. This field is required Today's news headlines, directly to your inbox every morning and evening. Rome's criminal court before the start of the trial of Finnegan Elder and Gabriel Natale Hjorth (Getty Images) Both the defendants have said that they didn’t know the Carabinieri paramilitary officer was a cop and claimed they acted in self-defense. Menu Mr Cerciello Rega had recently returned from a honeymoon when he was assigned along with a plain-clothes partner, officer Andrea Varriale, to follow up on a reported extortion attempt. Prosecutors contend the young Americans concocted a plot involving a stolen bag and mobile phone after their attempt to buy cocaine with 80 euros in Rome’s Trastevere nightlife district did not pan out. Elder's father, Ethan Elder, met with his son last week just prior to the much-delayed trial resuming, and he gave a quote from Finnegan Elder to ABC 7. The verdict is almost certain to be appealed. Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder. 21-year-old Finnegan Lee Elder, from San Francisco, is "confused how he seemingly was punished for telling the truth. During the trial, defense witnesses said Elder had a history of psychiatric problems, including paranoia. The jury of two judges and six civilians deliberated more than 12 hours before delivering the verdicts against Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, handing them Italy’s stiffest sentence. A jury is expected to decide on Wednesday or Thursday whether Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, are guilty of murder in the stabbing death of Mario Cerciello Rega in 2019. Both defendants said they acted in self-defence. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified they had paid for the cocaine but did not receive it. Thanks to the judges”. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. A Rome jury sentences two men from the Bay Area to life in jail for the assassination of a police Finnegan Lee Elder, now 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, received Italy’s harshest possible sentences after a full day of jury deliberation. Throughout the 14-month trial, defense attorneys argued that Elder and Natale-Hjorth believed they were acting in self defense because the officers were in plainclothes, did not identify themselves as police and did not show a badge. Sections, Finnegan Elder, right, shows a crucifix to co-defendant Gabriel Natale-Hjorth before a jury began deliberating (Gregorio Borgia/AP). "Those in a position of power, the Carabinieri and the prosecutors, can lie and mislead and they will not be held responsible. "What happened is unheard of," he said. I look forward to having the appellate court, with experienced, rational judges, objectively review the facts to determine a just outcome in this case for these two young boys.". A meeting was set up at 3 a.m. near the teens' hotel, but the intermediary was also a police informant; he called the police and reported that his backpack had been stolen and that the two youths were trying to extort him. "I have never seen something like this in 40 years of career. After paying for the drugs, the teens discovered that instead of cocaine, they had been sold aspirin.
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