Trial opens for all of us students over Italy police death
Two US students are anticipated to appear in an Italian court on Wednesday on the first day of their trial over the fatal stabbing last year of a policeman during a botched drugs bust.Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth have been charged with killing newlywed Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, who was simply stabbed 11 times through the attack last July.
The Californians, who was simply on holiday in Rome and were teenagers at that time, face a life sentence if convicted.
In Italy, the slaying aroused an outpouring of public sympathy for Cerciello, who had just returned from his honeymoon when he was killed. Huge crowds attended his funeral, that was broadcast go on television, where he was hailed as a hero.
"His murder cannot and should never go unpunished," his wife, Maria Rosaria Esilio, said in a statement on the eve of the trial. "My children is finished with Mario's death, because our unborn children and dreams were buried with him," she said.
But the case has been marked by major blunders especially the blindfolding of Natale-Hjorth during his police interrogation and contradictory statements created by the main element prosecution witness, Cerciello's partner Andrea Varriale.
In the aftermath, Varriale said he and Cerciello have been attacked by men of North African descent. He also primarily claimed he had been armed. Both officers were actually unarmed and acted without backup, in violation of police procedure.
Amid the strong media focus in the event, comparisons have been made to the high-profile trial of Amanda Knox, a US student convicted and later acquitted of a 2007 murder in Italy.Elder has admitted to stabbing Cerciello with a 7-inch (18 cm) serrated-edge combat knife he previously stashed in his sweatshirt but told investigators he thought he and his friend were being set after by drug dealers.
The young men and Varriale have given opposing versions of what happened through the 32-second attack in the early hours of the morning, which followed a drug deal gone wrong.Hours earlier, the teenagers from the San Francisco Bay Area had opted looking for cocaine in the favorite night-life area of Trastevere. Intermediary Sergio Brugiatelli introduced them to a dealer who sold them aspirin instead.
In retaliation, the teens stole Brugiatelli's bag, before demanding money and drugs to come back it.Cerciello and Varriale went in Brugiatelli's destination to the designated exchange point within an upscale neighbourhood nearby the teenagers' hotel however the handover never occurred.
Elder, now age 20, told police these were jumped from behind by the officers and believed these were thugs sent by Brugiatelli. Varriale has said he and Cerciello, both in plain clothes and unarmed, told the teenagers they were police, but that Elder pulled out a knife and attacked Cerciello, while Natale-Hjorth wrestled with Varriale.
The teens then fled with their close by hotel, where police later found the military knife hidden behind a ceiling panel.Under Italian law, Natale-Hjorth, who was simply 18 years old last July, faces the same charge of "voluntary homicide" with a special circumstance of killing a police officer, even though he did not stab Cerciello.
Both young men are also charged with attempted extortion. They face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment in isolation.
