A murderous rampage of Finnegan Lee Elder clear, voluntary. An action “aimed at avoiding a possible arrest” and, above all, implemented within a “shared program“And without any sign of repentance in the trial. This is what the judges of the first Court of Assizes of Rome write in the 346 pages of motivations for the sentence with which on May 5 they sentenced the two Americans to life imprisonment. Finnegan Lee Elder e Christian Gabriel Natale Hjorth for the murder of the Deputy Brigadier of the Carabinieri Mario Cerciello Rega killed with eleven stab wounds on 26 July 2019 in Roma while carrying out drug checks with his colleague Andrea Varriale. The sentence had accepted the requests of the prosecutor of Rome with the prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta.
According to the judges, in fact, “the two defendants acted within a shared program”, wanted by both, and therefore not only by Elder who materially inflicted the stabs, with a “criminal action” that “begins together and ends together “. At the intervention of the carabinieri to recover the backpack that the two Americans had stolen from a pusher, Hjorth and Elder both adopted and were the first to adopt active conduct of which “the lethal event constitutes a foreseeable, probable consequence”. And, above all, “a defensive attitude must be excluded”. That is the exact opposite of the line of Elder’s lawyers, who had asked to recognize the legitimate defense, arguing that the two carabinieri had not qualified and that they had first attacked the two Americans. Thesis that the reasons belie across the board: “The operation described by the defenses – it is read – it appears unsustainable and is proven wrong“From what emerged in the process. “The two defendants – on the contrary – are well aware that they are in a situation of illegality caused by themselves and from which they cannot consider themselves legitimized to escape by resorting to such violence – the reasons still read – we are not faced with an armed reaction but on the contrary to an offense action aimed at avoiding probable arrest by the police who intervened on the spot and qualified “.
In the 346 pages, then, the judges continue: “Deputy Brigadier Cerciello can no longer report his version, but his tortured body speak for him and attests to Elder’s murderous rampage“. The autopsy on the body of the carabiniere, in fact, had highlighted all the violence with which the American had overtaken the carabiniere, hitting him with a long-bladed slash 18 centimeters: 11 stab wounds that mostly severed vital organs, such as the heart and lungs. “The will to murder is evident”, the judges again write, “the injuries are very serious and exclude that the blows may have been inflicted for defense purposes”.
Especially in the motivations the personality of the accused, described as “alarmingDespite their young age. “There disconcerting perpetration of serious crimes carried out in a disturbing escalation of illegality, the adherence to deviant behavioral models, the exaltation of drugs and the ostentation of weapons and money as symbols of affirmation documented by the photos found on mobile phones, highlight the undoubted criminal capacity of both“, Specify the judges. They continue, emphasizing the attitude demonstrated after the murder: “Both of them continue to demonstrate – reads the motivations – substantial detachment from the events of that night and from their tragic ending, never show concrete signs of repentance, no re-elaboration in a critical way of those behaviors, on the contrary they do everything to diminish their objective responsibilities. No convinced and convincing attitude of critical re-enactment of what has been done, no repentance“. For this reason too, we read, there are no elements to recognize the “generic extenuating circumstances”.