Italian police sent messages saying they wanted two US tourists 'dissolved in acid' just hours after their colleague was stabbed t...
Italian police sent messages saying they wanted two US tourists 'dissolved in acid' just hours after their colleague was stabbed to death, a trial has heard, as the two men have begun their appeal trial.
Finnegan Lee Elder, now 22, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 20, were convicted in May 2021 of killing Mario Cerciello Rega, as well as of attempted extortion, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause.
Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Cerciello, 35, who had just returned from his honeymoon, was stabbed 11 times in the street while on a plainclothes mission in July 2019, near the hotel where the two US tourists were staying.
On Tuesday, a trial began against an officer who is charged with allegedly using unjustified means in blindfolding Natale-Hjorth, then 18, with his hands bound behind his back inside a police station after his arrest.
Evidence in the trial included group chat messages from a separate group of officers which called for the tourists to be 'dissolved in acid' just hours after Cerciello's killing, according to local news reports.
Elder's mother Leah said the messages 'shine a light on the venomous environment that my son and the other boy were in in those first hours' after the stabbing.
This has emerged as, in a separate court trial occurring simultaneously, Elder and Natale-Hjorth, who were friends back home in California, have begun their appeal against their conviction and life sentences for the July 2019 killing.
Their lawyers said they were hoping for a better outcome as the appeal got underway on Thursday, saying they believe evidence was 'improperly evaluated' in the first trial.
Finnegan Lee Elder (left), now 22, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth (right), now 20, were convicted in May 2021 of killing Mario Cerciello Rega, as well as of attempted extortion
Arriving at the appeal trial, Elder's mother Leah said she hopes 'inconsistencies' she claimed were present in the first trial would be 'brought to light'.
'We trust in the Italian justice system,' an emotional Ms Elder said before heading over to the courthouse on Thursday.
'We hope that the anomalies and the inconsistencies that were revealed in the first trial will be brought to light. We really hope that the truth of that night will be shown.'
Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Cerciello (above), 35, was stabbed 11 times in the street while on a plainclothes mission in July 2019
In the police officer's trial into abusing his authority after blindfolding Natale-Hjorth, a series of messages from another group of officers who called for rough justice for Cerciello's killers.
In group chat messages published by La Corriere della Sera, and entered in court as evidence on Wednesday, the officials demand the Americans receive the death penalty, which Italy doesn't have, or that they be put into a closed room and killed.
Another graphic message suggested that the two be 'dissolved in acid'.
One message said 'do him like Cucchi', referring to an Italian man who was severely beaten in 2009 while in Carabinieri custody and later died. Two police officers were eventually convicted of involuntary homicide in that case and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Commenting on the messages, Ms Elder said they 'made me realize that there are bad cops everywhere, and as a mother it devastates me to know that somebody was talking about the child that I gave birth to in that way.
Carabinieri officials on Wednesday called the chat messages 'offensive and abominable' and pledged to immediately discipline the officers involved, Italian news agency Lapresse said.
The widow of newly-wed Cerciello, Rosa Maria Ersillo (pictured), was seen looking downcast as she arrived at the Appellate Court on Thursday for the US tourists' appeal trial
Elder's mother Leah Elder (pictured) said she hopes 'inconsistencies' she claimed were present in the first trial would be 'brought to light' during the appeal trial
Separately, Elder and Natale-Hjorth's appeal trial kicked off in Rome on Thursday, with their lawyers claiming there were 'mistakes' during the first trial.
The widow of Cerciello, Rosa Maria Ersillo, who had just tied the knot before his death, was seen looking downcast as she arrived at the Appellate Court on Thursday for the US tourists' appeal against their conviction and life sentences.
As he headed into Thursday's trial session, one of Elder's lawyers said the defense aims to 'get justice' and said they believe 'mistakes' were made in the first trial.
Appeals Court Judge Andrea Calabria rejected requests by media to cover the latest trial, citnig the small size of the courtroom and the lack of windows to allow ventilation from outdoors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the first trial, the defendants testified that neither Cerciello Rega nor his plainclothes officer identified themselves as police and that they thought the Italians, wearing casual summer clothes, were thugs.
The plainclothes officers were pursuing a reported extortion attempt allegedly concocted by the Americans after a botched bid to buy cocaine a few hours earlier in the Trastevere nightlife district of Rome.
After the botched drug deal, the American holidaymakers went to meet someone they expected to the go-between on the failed deal, but were greeted by police instead.
Both Americans claimed they were jumped from behind by men they thought were drug dealers. They denied the officers had shown them their police badges.
On Tuesday, a separate trial began against an officer accused of abusing his authority in connection with the teenager's arrest after blindfolding a handcuffed Natale-Hjorth (pictured)
People carry a banner bearing the photo of Carabinieri officer Mario Cerciello Rega and reading 'Sempre con noi', or ever with us, at the end of the funeral mass on July 29, 2019
But Cerciello's partner, Andrea Varriale, testified that the attack was unprovoked, coming immediately after the two plainclothes officers presented themselves as police.
He also testified that neither policeman brought his service gun to the scene and insisted they showed their police badges.
Meanwhile, Elder testified that Cerciello Rega tried to strangle him, so he pulled out the 11-inch camping knife he carried for his own protection and repeatedly stabbed the officer to break free.
Natale-Hjorth did not handle the murder weapon during the attack, scuffling instead with Varriale. He testified that he broke free, ran back to the hotel and was unaware of the stabbing during the struggle.
But he helped Elder hide the knife in their hotel room, and under Italian law faced the same homicide charge as his friend.
Life in prison is Italy's stiffest penalty, and harsher than many given to mafia criminals or others who commit premeditated killings.
Renato Borzone, one of Elder's lawyers, said he headed into Thursday's trial session that the defense team aims 'to get justice'.
He added that they 'believe that there were mistakes, evidence improperly evaluated' in the first trial.
Issuing a required verdict explanation a few weeks after the convictions, a court dismissed arguments of self-defense as patently implausible and rejected the defendants' arguments that the officers didn't identify themselves as police.
Ahead of appeal trial, Elder's lawyers, Renato Borzone and Roberto Capra (pictured on Thursday), said a 'correct reading of the evidence' would result in a different outcome
The court also cited Cerciello Rega's 'professionalism, dedication to work, experience on the streets, his humanity' in reasoning that the officer would have no reason to try to strangle Elder.
In the appeal, the two men's lawyers plan to argue that the court ignored substantial evidence that Varriale, the prosecution's star witness, lied on the stand.
They also aim to highlight what they say was a pattern of ignored protocol by police the night of the attack.
Among other inconsistencies, Varriale admitted having previously lied when he said after the attack that he had been armed, when he was actually without his gun.
Three other prosecution witnesses are being prosecuted for perjury.
The defense will also cite a court document explaining its reasoning for the conviction and sentences as evidence of bias towards law enforcement.
In that document, which was published in July, the court criticised defense lawyers, saying they 'mocked the conduct of the victims' during the trial, as they defended their clients 'to the limits of permission and decency'.
Elder's lawyers, Renato Borzone and Roberto Capra, said on Tuesday that a 'correct reading of the evidence' by the appeals court would result in a different outcome.
'The truth of what really happened that night is already in the documents collected during the first instance trial, you just need to want to see it,' they wrote in a statement.
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