Life imprisonment for both defendants and one month of daytime isolation.
This is the sentence requested by the prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta, during the closing speech, in the trial for the murder of Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, in which the two Americans Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth are accused. The vice-brigadier of the Carabinieri Mario Cerciello Rega was killed on the night between 25 and 26 July 2019. According to what was reconstructed by the prosecutor during the closing speech, the soldier was hit by 11 stab wounds. “A deadly weapon”, the magistrate underlined in requesting life imprisonment for the two defendants, the young Americans Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale Hjorth.
“A good man, a carabiniere that everyone talked about, was killed. A man who worked and two young men who wanted to spend the evening as they could. Elder also said so, they were looking for cocaine”. This is a passage from the closing statement of the prosecutor of Rome, Maria Sabina Calabretta, who asked the court of assizes to impose life sentences on Californians Finnegan Lee Elder and Cristian Gabriel Natale Hjorth, accused of the murder of the vice-brigadier of the carabinieri, Mario Cerciello Rega, stabbed to death in the Roman neighborhood of Prati on July 26, 2019, while he was in the company of his colleague Andrea Varriale, who was slightly injured in the fight.
“An aggression, a disproportionate and deadly attack: a single action to kill, the purpose was to kill”. This is how prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta describes the dramatic phases that preceded the death of Mario Cerciello Rega, killed with 11 stab wounds by Finnegan Lee Elder on July 26, 2019 in Rome. For the magistrate Cerciello “could have done little even if he was armed and he was not. Elder's intention was homicidal”.
“It was an assault, a violent, deadly, disproportionate attack. He could have done little to defend himself even if he had been armed, but he wasn’t. The sole purpose of that action was to kill.” This is what prosecutor Calabretta said during his closing speech in which he requested a life sentence for Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale Hjorth. “Cerciello did not have time to develop any active defense. He was killed with eleven stab wounds in less than thirty seconds. There is no sign of an attack by Cerciello or an attempted strangulation,” the magistrate emphasized. “The two carabinieri sneaking up behind him is not reasonable. And colleague Andrea Varriale was unable to intervene” to help Cerciello “as he was absorbed in the fight with Natale.” And then with respect to the reconstruction: “The carabinieri approached Elder and Natale from the front and not from behind.”
Article published on March 6, 2021 - 14pm
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