ROME – The pandemic was just bearing down on Italy when the trial began of two young American men, charged with the murder of Italian police officer near their hotel while they were on vacation in 2019.
On Wednesday, after more than 14 months, defense lawyers will wrap up their arguments, and the two defendants, former schoolmates from California, can expect to learn their fates later in the week.
Finnegan Lee Elder, now 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 20, insisted they acted in self-defense. They say they thought they were being attacked by a pair of thugs or mafiosi when Carabiniere Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega and fellow officer Andrea Varriale approached them in the wee hours of July 26, 2019.