GUILTY Italy- Finnegan Elder, 19 & Gabriel Hjorth, 18, US students, police murder, 26 Jul 2019 *guilty* *new trial 2023*

[JerseyGirl]

Italy's highest court orders new trial for U.S. tourists over policeman's murder

Italy's highest court late on Wednesday ordered two American tourists to stand a new trial for the 2019 killing of a policeman in central Rome following a botched attempt to buy drugs, but upheld a murder sentence for one of them.

www.reuters.com

 

[JerseyGirl]

US tourists jailed in Italy for killing police officer to get new trial

The Court of Cassation ruled there is not enough evidence to prove the Americans were aware the slain officer was a member of the Carabinieri

www.independent.co.uk

 

[JerseyGirl]

Bay Area classmates who killed Italian police officer get new trial

Here's what comes next for Finnegan Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth.

www.sfgate.com

The Court of Cassation judges have ordered the court in the pair’s new trial to focus on Natale-Hjorth’s role as an accomplice and on the aggravating circumstances of attacking a police officer in Elder’s case.

“The court acknowledged what we’ve been saying from the beginning, that there were a series of questions about whether or not he knew that Cerciello Rega was a carabiniere,” Roberto Capra, one of Elder’s lawyers, told reporters last week. “Now that will have to be clarified in a new trial.”

It’s not yet clear when the men will be back in court. While they await their new trial, they remain incarcerated.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The court convicted Finnegan Lee Elder and sentenced him to 15 years and two months in prison and gave a sentence of 11 years to Gabriele Natale-Hjorth.

They were found guilty over the death of the carabinieri vice-brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega in July 2019. Prosecutors had asked that Finnegan be sentenced to 23 years and nine months and 23 years for Natale-Hjorth.

The former school friends from the San Francisco Bay area, who were teenagers at the time of the killing, had met in Rome to spend a few days on holiday together.

The fatal incident took place after they arranged to meet a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to have been a police informant, to recover money lost in a bad deal.

Instead, they were confronted by the officers. Cerciello Riga was stabbed 11 times.

Italian court upholds murder convictions of two Americans over death of police officer

Court of appeal reduces sentences of Finnegan Lee Elder, 24, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 23 over killing of Mario Cerciello Rega

www.theguardian.com