Two former San Francisco Bay Area high school students were convicted by an Italian court for the 2019 stabbing death of a police officer in the Carabinieri, the Italian national police force, in the Trastevere district of Rome, the San Francisco Gate reports.
Finnegan Lee Elder, now 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 20, were in Rome on July 26, 2019 on vacation. They went to the Trastevere entertainment district looking to buy cocaine. They were introduced to someone who they thought would sell them cocaine, but the individual, a police informant, actually gave them crushed aspirin.
Angered at not getting cocaine, the pair found the dealer again and took his backpack and 100 euro, as well as cocaine the man had. The dealer/informant went to police. The dealer set up a time to meet with the Americans; two plainclothes accompanied him. While meeting, Elder and Natale-Hjorth attacked the officers, with Elder stabbing 35-year-old Deputy Brig. Mario Cerciello Rega to death.
In their defense, the Americans said the police never identified themselves as police officers although they were wearing badges, and the Americans thought they were being attacked. Elder’s lawyers also argued that he has psychological issues that make him paranoid.
The jury did not buy their excuses. They were found guilty and face life sentences in Italian prison.