American men back in Italian court after convictions in officer's slaying were thrown out: Elder did

(8 Mar 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rome, Italy - 8 March 2024
1. Gabriel Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder enter the courtroom for the trial
2. Close of Gabriel Natale-Hjorth
3. Finnegan Lee Elder's father (left)
4. Close of Finnegan Lee Elder
5. Pan of the courtroom, starting with slain officer Mario Cerciello Rega's wife, Rosa Maria Esilio
6. Close up of judges
7. Close of Esilio
8. Esilio's hands holding Cerciello Rega's photo
9. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Franco Coppi, civil plaintiff's lawyer:
'We have never made a question of punishment or not, what interests us is that responsibility will be recognised. We have said it from the first moment: there are no vindictive instincts or the desire to punish at all costs, but that justice be done."
10. Wide of the courtroom
11. Close of the trial documents
12. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Roberto Capra, defence lawyer:
"The Court of Appeal in this new trial will have to assess whether or not the aggravating circumstances actually exist, we believe that the Court of Cassation has already said that the circumstances do not exist, and obviously we will continue in this direction".
13. Natale-Hjorth embraces his mother
14. Lee Elder with his father
15. Lee Elder leaves the courtroom
16. Sign reading (Italian) "Court of Appeal of Rome"
17. Defence lawyers outside the Court
STORYLINE:
A new trial opened Friday for two American men in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy’s highest court threw out their convictions.
Italy’s highest Cassation Court ordered a new trial last year, saying 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.
Finnegan Lee Elder, 24, and Gabriel Natale-Hjort, 23, who were teenagers at the time of the July 26, 2019 slaying, sat side by side as an appeals court judge made opening remarks in the new trial.
The two are being held in separate prisons near the Italian capital.
The friends from California were found guilty in the killing of Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega and on four other counts and sentenced to life in prison, Italy’s harshest punishment.
The sentences were reduced to 24 years for Elder and 22 years for Natale-Hjorth on appeal.
Prosecutors alleged Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega 11 times with a knife that he brought with him on his trip to Europe, and that Natale-Hjorth, then 18, helped him hide the knife in their hotel room.
Natale-Hjorth testified that he grappled with Cerciello Rega’s partner and was unaware of the stabbing when he ran back to the hotel.
The two friends had arranged to meet a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to be a police informant, to recover money lost in a bad deal and return a backpack they had snatched in retaliation, when they were confronted by the officers.
According to the defendants' lawyers, the Cassation's decision changed the evaluation of the incident, suggesting that the two Americans didn't know they were facing Carabinieri police officers when the attack happened.
"Our strategy remains the same,” Elder's lawyer Roberto Capra told The Associated Press.
“We always said that Elder didn't know he was confronting a police officer ... This changes the whole reconstruction of the incident and we believe it will have an impact on the punishment.”
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