Jury considers verdict on Americans charged with killing Rome policeman

5 May 2021, 12:04

Italy Police Slaying Trial
Italy Police Slaying Trial. Picture: PA

Finnegan Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, are accused or murder.

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 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.

Judge Marina Finiti indicated the verdicts could come later on Wednesday or on Thursday.

Prosecutors alleged that Elder stabbed Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega 11 times with a knife he brought with him on his trip to Europe from California and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in their hotel room.

Italy Police Slaying Trial
Judge Marina Finiti announces to the lawyers that the jury will be gathering to decide the verdict (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

The July 26 2019 death of the officer from the Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy. Mr Cerciello Rega, 35, was mourned as a national hero.

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.

“I’m stressed,” Elder said to one of his lawyers. At another point during Wednesday’s brief court hearing, Elder took a crucifix he wears on a chain around his neck and kissed it.

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.

Italy Police Slaying Trial
Finnegan Elder touches a crucifix he has around his neck (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

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. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified they had paid for the cocaine but did not receive it.

Both defendants said they acted in self-defence.

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. The officers wore casual summer clothes and not uniforms, and the defendants insisted the officers never showed police badges.

Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder.

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.

Italy Police Slaying Trial
Gabriel Natale-Hjorth wears a face mask in his cell in the courtroom Gregorio Borgia/AP)

Prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta has asked the court to convict both defendants and to mete out Italy’s stiffest punishment of life imprisonment.

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.

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.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Video footage shows the convoy had emergency lights flashing when it was hit

Israel admits ‘mistakenly’ killing 15 aid workers after video leak contradicted official version of events

Jaguar Land Rover has paused shipments to the US in the wake of 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover halts shipments to US in wake of tariffs as Trump insists he'll win 'economic revolution'

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday

Death toll from Russian strike on Zelenskyy's home town rises as 18 confirmed dead - including nine children

Donald Trump's 10% tariff on UK products has officially come into force

Trump tariffs come into force as global stock markets plunge deeper into the red

Tom Howard

British tourist killed after being struck by boulder on trek through Himalayas

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a car burns following a Russian missile attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded

Travel influencer Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island

Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'

White House weighs in to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

White House looking to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

This image provided by NASA shows Nick Hague, right, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore. (NASA via AP)

Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they were almost trapped in space 'forever' after horror malfunction

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen'

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen' after far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement in 'witch hunt'

China will impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on imports from the US

China announces additional 34% tariffs on US imports in retaliation over Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies

Friends of Prince Andrew say he's "unsurprised" Giuffre made the post

Prince Andrew 'not surprised' his accuser shared shock post saying she had 'four days to live'

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office as impeachment upheld over martial law declaration

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’