ROME — One of two Americans convicted in the 2019 stabbing death of an Italian plainclothes police officer has been placed under house arrest after an appeals court significantly reduced his original life sentence.ROME — One of two Americans convicted in the 2019 stabbing death of an Italian plainclothes police officer has been placed under house arrest after an appeals court significantly reduced his original life sentence. Gabriel Natale-Hjorth can serve his sentence of 11 years and four months at a grandparent’s home in the seaside resort of Fregene, west of Rome, state news agencies RAI and LaPresse reported, citing the court ruling. Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder, both from California, were found guilty of murdering Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega in July 2019 in a botched sting operation after a drug deal in Rome went wrong. After their initial trial, both were sentenced to life in prison, the harshest punishment in Italy. Last year, Italy’s highest Court of Cassation ordered a new trial, finding that it had not been conclusively proven that the Americans, who admittedly had limited knowledge of Italian, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet the alleged drug dealer. An appeals court earlier this month significantly reduced their original sentences. Finnegan, who wielded the knife, is serving his 15 years and 2 months in prison. Teenagers at the time of the murder, the former high school friends from the San Francisco Bay Area had met in Rome for a few days’ vacation. The fatal confrontation occurred after they arranged to meet with a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to be a police informant, to get back money they had lost in a drug deal gone bad. Instead, they were confronted by two officers. Cerciello Riga was stabbed eleven times with a knife he had taken from his hotel room.
ROME — One of two Americans convicted in the 2019 stabbing death of an Italian plainclothes police officer has been placed under house arrest after an appeals court significantly reduced his original life sentence.
Gabriel Natale-Hjorth can serve his sentence of 11 years and four months at a grandparent’s home in the seaside resort of Fregene, west of Rome, state news agencies RAI and LaPresse reported, citing the court ruling.
Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder, both from California, were found guilty of murdering Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega in July 2019 in a botched sting operation after a drug deal in Rome went wrong. After their initial trial, both were sentenced to life in prison, the harshest punishment in Italy.
Last year, Italy’s highest Court of Cassation ordered a new trial, finding that it had not been conclusively proven that the Americans, who admittedly had limited knowledge of Italian, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet the alleged drug dealer.
An appeals court earlier this month significantly reduced their original sentences. Finnegan, who wielded the knife, is serving his 15 years and 2 months in prison.
Teenagers at the time of the murder, the former high school friends from the San Francisco Bay Area had met in Rome for a few days’ vacation. The fatal confrontation occurred after they arranged to meet with a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to be a police informant, to get back money they had lost in a drug deal gone bad. Instead, they were confronted by two officers.
Cerciello Riga was stabbed eleven times with a knife he had taken from his hotel room.
