Lawyers for Finnegan Elder and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, who received Italy’s toughest punishment for a 2019 fatal stabbing, hope to prove that their clients did not deserve such long terms.
ROME — In the early hours of a summer morning in Rome in 2019, two American teenagers had a brief scuffle on a dark street corner with a pair of police officers. The encounter lasted less than a minute, but one of the officers was stabbed 11 times and left fatally wounded.
The Americans, Finnegan Elder, now 22, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, now 20, were found guilty in May of murder and sentenced to life in prison — Italy’s toughest punishment.
They appeared back in court on Thursday to appeal their sentences.
The fatal stabbing and the ensuing 15-month trial in Rome drew international headlines, in part because of the young ages of Mr. Elder, who was 19 at the time of the murder, and of Mr. Natale Hjorth, who was 18. Italians were shocked by the death of the officer, Vice Brig. Mario Cerciello Rega, who was 35 and had just returned to work after his honeymoon. Vice Brigadier Cerciello Rega was given a hero’s funeral, broadcast live on national television.
The scuffle between the Americans and the police officers took place on July 26, 2019, after an evening that began hours earlier when Mr. Elder and Mr. Natale Hjorth attempted to buy cocaine. The transaction went sour, and they stole a backpack belonging to a man said to have brokered the deal. They arranged to return the backpack in exchange for money, but got into an altercation with Vice Brigadier Cerciello Rega and his partner, Andrea Varriale, who had gone to retrieve it.
The two Americans testified during their trial that they had acted in self-defense after being attacked by the officers, who they believed were criminal associates of the drug dealer. The officers were both dressed in plain clothes and, according to the defendants, did not identify themselves as being members of the carabinieri, a military police branch.
But the court in May rejected that argument and convicted the Americans of homicide, attempted extortion, resisting a public official and carrying a weapon without just cause.
At the start of the appeal hearing, the lead prosecutor, Vincenzo Saveriano, reiterated what he called the “sheer brutality” of the crime, carried out “at the limit of cruelty,” and he called on the court to confirm Mr. Elder’s life sentence. Although the prosecution in the original trial requested life sentences for both of the Americans, Mr. Saveriano, who was brought in for the appeal, asked that Mr. Natale Hjorth’s punishment be reduced to 24 years, since he had not wielded the knife that killed the officer.
Defense lawyers for the Americans said they hoped that a full review of the case would prove that their clients did not deserve such long sentences. The result of the appeal is expected in mid-March.
Reporters and family members were not allowed inside the courtroom on Thursday because of Covid restrictions.
In a 346-page ruling issued two months after the May verdict, the court said that “despite their young age,” Mr. Elder and Mr. Natale Hjorth had “alarming” personalities that upheld “deviant models of behavior,” such as glorifying drugs and flaunting money and weapons as “symbols of success.” The court reasoned that the two men had “acted according to a premeditated plan” and that the murder had been the “predictable, probable consequence” of the events that led to it.
Both defendants and their families have rejected those characterizations.
Leah Elder, Mr. Elder’s mother, who traveled to Rome from San Francisco last month to celebrate her son’s 22nd birthday, said that he had descended into a “significant and deep and perilous state,” after the verdict was announced. But nine months later he was doing better, she said, noting that he was exercising, taking Italian language classes and contributing to a newsletter run by a volunteer group for inmates and their families.
Heidi Hjorth, Mr. Natale Hjorth’s mother, said in a telephone interview from California, where she lives, that her son was “flooded with worries and fears” but was also exercising in prison, including playing soccer, and trying to start a university course. She said that she planned to visit Rome later this month.
“Hope and faith in justice is all we have left in our vulnerability,” Ms. Hjorth said.
Mr. Elder is being held at the Rebibbia prison in northeastern Rome, while Mr. Natale Hjorth is at Velletri prison, southeast of the capital.
Looking tired, Rosa Maria Esilio, Vice Brigadier Cerciello Rega’s widow, declined to speak to reporters on Thursday.
After the hearing, lawyers for Mr. Natale Hjorth said that the prosecutor’s request to reduce the sentence for their client was “a first step.” But Fabio Alonzi, one of the lawyers, said that they would continue to argue for Mr. Natale Hjorth’s “total lack of involvement” in the killing.
Ms. Elder said that the events of 2019 had resulted in “sorrow and sadness and heartbreak” for everyone involved.
“We struggle with the fact that someone is no longer on the earth because of that night, and the weight of that is crushing,” she said.
