2 days ago
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Court of appeal reduces sentences of Finnegan Lee Elder, 24, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 23 over killing of Mario Cerciello Rega
An Italian court of appeal has upheld the murder convictions of two American men over the death of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation but reduced their sentences. The new trial was ordered after Italy’s highest court threw out their original convictions.
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.
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