Italian court trims US men's jail time in officer's slaying

An Italian appeals court has reduced the sentences of two young American men who had been hoping for leniency after being convicted last year of murdering a Carabinieri police officer

ROME -- An Italian appeals court on Thursday reduced the sentences of two young American men serving life terms over the multiple stabbing death of a Carabinieri police officer while they were on vacation in Rome in 2019.

After just over three hours of deliberations, the court in the Italian capital handed down sentences of 24 years to Finnegan Lee Elder and 22 years to Gabriel Natale-Hjorth. It upheld the convictions of the two men, both from northern California for the murder of Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega on a street near their hotel.

After the first trial last year, the two friends had begun serving the earlier, life sentences, Italy’s harshest punishment, in separate Rome prisons.

Judge Andrea Calabria kept media out of the courtroom for pandemic concerns, and it wasn’t clear how the defendants reacted to the decision.