Italian court weighs US men’s fate in officer’s 2019 slaying

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — An Italian appeals court has begun deliberating the fates of two young American men who are hoping for some leniency after being convicted last year of murdering a Carabinieri police officer. The defendants are serving life sentences, Italy’s harshest punishment. Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, was hailed as a national hero after he was fatally stabbed 11 times with an attack-style knife in the street near the Rome hotel where the Americans were vacationing in July 2019. In the first trial, the court convicted Finnegan Lee Elder, now 22, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 21, of slaying the officer as well as of attempted extortion in connection with a botched attempt to buy some cocaine.