Italian appeals court upholds convictions but reduces sentences for American men in police officer slaying

An Italian appeals court has upheld the convictions of two American men in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation. The court reduced their sentences in a new trial ordered after Italy's highest court threw out their original convictions.

New Sentences

The court convicted Lee Elder Finnegan and sentenced him to 15 years and 2 months in prison. Gabriele Natale-Hjorth was given a sentence of 11 years. This is a reduction from the prosecutors' request for Finnegan to be sentenced to 23 years and nine months, and 23 years for Natale-Hjorth.

The two men, former schoolmates from the San Francisco Bay area, were found guilty in the July 2019 slaying of Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega. They had met up in Rome to spend a few days vacationing. The fatal confrontation 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. Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega was stabbed 11 times with a knife brought from a hotel room.

New Trial Order

Italy's highest Cassation Court ordered a new trial last year, stating that it hadn't been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants, with limited Italian language skills, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet an alleged drug dealer in Rome. The defense argued that the defendants didn't know they were facing law enforcement when the attack happened.

Reevaluation by Appeals Court

The highest court threw out Elder's conviction and 24-year sentence, and asked the appeals court to consider the charge of resisting an officer. For Natale-Hjorth, the appeals court was ordered to look at the charge of complicity to commit murder.

Prosecution Allegations

Prosecutors alleged that Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega with a knife brought from the hotel room and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in their hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder without carrying out the slaying. Prosecutors contended that the young Americans concocted a plot involving a stolen bag and cellphone after their failed attempt to buy cocaine with $96 in Rome's Trastevere nightlife district.

The killing of the officer in the storied Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy. Cerciello Rega, 35, was mourned as a national hero.