US student who 'stabbed an Italian cop to death' during cocaine bust in Rome weeps in court as he apologizes to the officer's family and says: 'I will never be able to forgive myself'
A US student who 'stabbed an Italian cop to death' during a Rome drug bust wept in court today as he apologised to the officer's family, saying 'I will never be able to forgive myself.'
Finnegan Lee Elder, 20, read a statement in front of the Rome court in which he said the evening of July 26, 2019 was 'the worst night of my life', according to Italian news agencies at the hearing, which is closed to most media due to coronavirus restrictions.
Elder and friend Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 19, face life sentences for murder.
Prosecutors say Mario Cerciello Rega was killed in an unprovoked nighttime attack after he and his partner, both in plain clothes, approached the two American friends on vacation in Italy, who had earlier tried to buy drugs.
Elder has admitted to stabbing policeman Mario Cerciello Rega several times with an eight-inch combat knife, but both he and Hjorth say they were jumped from behind by men they thought were drug dealers.
Finnegan Lee Elder, 20, (pictured appearing in a court in Rome today) has admitted to stabbing policeman Mario Cerciello Rega several times with an eight-inch combat knife, but both he and Hjorth say they were jumped from behind by men they thought were drug dealers
'I want to apologise to everyone, the Cerciello family and his friends,' Elder, in tears, told the court. 'To the whole world. That night was the worst night of my life and if I could go back and change things I would do it now, but I can't,' he added.
'I want to say that that night was the worst night of my life, not because I am in prison, away from everyone,' he said.
'There are other reasons: I took a person's life, I took a husband from his wife, I broke a bond between brothers. And I have taken a son from his mother. I will never be able to forgive myself for all this.'
Cerciello's death was front-page news last year due to an outpouring of public sympathy for the policeman, who had just returned to work after his honeymoon. But there was also widespread shock over leaked photos of Natale-Hjorth blindfolded and handcuffed inside a police station.
Natale-Hjorth fought with Cerciello's partner during the attack. Even though he did not stab Cerciello, under Italian law he faces the same charge of 'voluntary homicide' with a special circumstance of killing a police officer.
Elder and Natale-Hjorth, both from San Francisco, were 19 and 18 at the time of the killing.
The images in court show Elder with a partially missing middle finger. His mother told CNN last year that her son fell from a ladder in an industrial accident a few years ago.
This left his left hand partially paralyzed and his finger amputated, Leah Elder said. 'He was hospitalized for days while they attempted reattachment surgery of the finger twice and then it didn’t take and he had to have amputation surgery.'
IN 2016, he was charged assault of a fellow high school classmate that resulted in severe injury
Natale-Hjorth (left) fought with Cerciello's partner during the attack. Even though he did not stab Cerciello, under Italian law he faces the same charge of 'voluntary homicide'
Defence attorneys have tried to show that police committed multiple errors the night of the incident. Pictured: Friends Finnegan Lee Elder (L) and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth (C) enter the Rome courtroom today
A confusing web of events led to the 32-second attack, beginning with the young Americans looking for cocaine earlier in the evening.
After an intermediary introduced them to a drug dealer who sold them aspirin instead, the teens stole the bag of the intermediary in retaliation, later demanding money and drugs to return it.
The dealer was actually an informant, who reported the bag's theft to police. Cerciello and his partner Andrea Varriale left their designated patrol area and showed up at the designated exchange point near the teenagers' hotel before the attack.
Defence attorneys have tried to show that police committed multiple errors the night of the incident - alleging lies by Varriale, a falsified police report and the withholding from the defence of evidence that the drug dealer was a police informant.
They hope these missteps will give credence to the young men's claim that the officers did not show their badges before the attack.
In July, Varriale testified that the two officers approached the young men from the front and showed their badges, although Cerciello's badge was never subsequently found.
Mario Cerciello Rega, who had just returned to work from his honeymoon, suffered 11 stab wounds and later died in hospital from his injuries
Elder, 20, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 19, (right) are charged with stabbing Deputy Brigadier Rega to death in Rome. The pair are pictured here in a photo released by Italian Carabinieri
Varriale admitted to lying when he said following the attack that both officers had been armed, as they should have been while on duty, and that he conspired with a superior officer to lie about it.
In his statement in court, Elder said 'many mistakes were made that night. Mine was the biggest.'
'I would like to go back and change things, but I cannot. All I can say is that I feel remorse. I am in pain for the suffering I have caused. I am sorry and very sad for what happened to Cerciello'.
Last month, Varriale described to the Rome court how he desperately tried to stop up Cerciello's wounds until an ambulance arrived, but 'the blood was spurting out'.
'We approached the pair from the front and we pulled out our badges, saying we were police,' Varriale told the court, according to Italian news agencies.
'They had nothing in their hands. We just wanted to identify them. They immediately attacked us,' Varriale said.
The murder sparked a national outcry. The funeral was held in the same church where Rega had married just months before
'I was grabbed by Natale and we wrestled on the floor. At the same time I could hear Cerciello shouting "Stop! Police!" His voice was breaking,' he said.
'The whole thing lasted just a few seconds. I let my aggressor go because I was alarmed by Cerciello's shouts. I looked up and I saw him standing, and he said "they stabbed me", before collapsing on the ground.'
The court then heard the audio recording of the emergency call Varriale made
Natale-Hjorth initially told investigators he had not been involved, but his fingerprints were found on a ceiling panel in the hotel room where the students had hidden the knife.
Under Italian law, anyone who participates even indirectly in a murder can face homicide charges.
The pair have reportedly been held in solitary confinement at the Regina Coeli holding jail (above) in central Rome while detectives investigate the murder
The case has been marked by major blunders - especially the blindfolding of Natale-Hjorth during his police interrogation (pictured)
The day after the Americans were arrested, a photograph was leaked to the press showing Natale-Hjorth illegally blindfolded and handcuffed at the Rome barracks where he had been taken for questioning.
Varriale admitted he had not only been present, he had taken the photograph and had filmed the scene as well.
Varriale stuck by his story that he had been carrying his gun until August 9, when he confessed that not only did he not have his gun on him, but that he had conspired with a superior officer to lie about it.
The Americans had earlier that night stolen the bag of a man who had introduced them to a drug dealer.
They say the theft was revenge for the dealer having tried to rip them off. What they did not know was that the dealer was a police informant. When they set up a meeting to swap the bag in return for money, the police turned up instead.
While Varriale says he and Cerciello showed the Americans their badges, Cerciello's badge was never found, and in the chaotic aftermath of the stabbing, Varriale was not asked to produce his, or his handcuffs.
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