American cop killers get time off on appeal
Lee Elder term cut from 24 to 15 yrs, Hjorth from 22 to 11
Two young Americans who killed a
Carabiniere in Rome in 2019 got sunstantial sentence reductions
on appeal on Wednesday.
The Rome Assize Court of Appeal sentenced Finnegan Lee Elder to
15 years and two months in prison, instead of 24 years, and
Gabriele Natale Hjorth to 11 years and four months, instead of
22 years, in the murder of Carabiniere Mario Cerciello Rega in
Rome after a botched drug deal in July 2019.
In March 2023 Italy's Supreme Court overturned an appeal court
ruling against the two young Americans for killing the
Carabinieri police officer while on vacation in the Italian
capital and ordered a new trial.
The court annulled the 24-year-sentence handed down to Lee Elder
and the 22-year sentence handed down to Natale Hjorth in March
2022 in relation to the murder of Cerciello Rega with 11 stab
wounds and assault against his partner at the end of a chain of
events sparked by a drugs deal that went wrong.
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