Vacationing California men convicted, sentenced to life for killing Italian cop
Two vacationing California men have been convicted and sentenced to life for murdering a police officer in Rome.
Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, both from the San Francisco Bay Area, killed Carabinieri Vice Bridgadier Mario Cercielloa Rega, a police officer, during a drug sting in July 2019.
According to prosecutors, the men were swindled out of almost $100 while trying to buy cocaine in a trendy area of Rome. After police arrived at the scene, the pair and the swindlers fled, but the Americans took one of the purported dealers’ backpacks. The pair arranged a handoff to exchange the backpack for the money they had lost.
At the same time, Cercielloa Rega, 35, and Andrea Varriale, his partner, were patrolling the area in plainclothes without their service weapons and came across the Americans.
The Americans later testified that the two officers did not show their badges or identify themselves as police. Thinking they were about to get mugged or assaulted, the Americans started fighting the officers.
While Varriale and Natala-Hjorth scuffled, Elder and Cercielloa Rega fought. Elder later testified that Cercielloa Rega was on top of him and he thought he was being strangled so Elder pulled the knife out and stabbed him.
Elder stabbed Cercielloa Rega 11 times and Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in the ceiling of their hotel room, prosecutors said. Varriale later testified that he and Cercielloa Rega had identified themselves as Carabinieri officers.
Within hours, the pair were charged with homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. Both testified they acted in self-defense.
The jury deliberated for 12 hours before the verdict was announced. A life sentence is Italy’s most severe criminal penalty.
Clutching a photo of Cercielloa Rega, Rosa Maria Esilio, his widow, wept in court after the verdict was announced.
