Rome, 15 July (LaPresse) – Gabriel Natale Hjorth has been sentenced to 10 years, 11 months and 25 days for complicity in the murder of Deputy Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega of the Carabinieri. The Rome Court of Appeal has revised the sentence, accepting the guidelines set out by the Court of Cassation, which had overturned the previous sentence, considering life imprisonment excessive. The defence team for the young American, who was just 18 at the time, had appealed, obtaining a reassessment of Hjorth's role on the tragic night between 25 and 26 July 2019 in Rome's Prati district, when Gabriel Natale Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder, aged 18 and 19 at the time, killed the Carabinieri non-commissioned officer. The two were looking for cocaine and bought it from Italo Pompei, but instead of drugs, they received a tablet of paracetamol. In revenge, they stole the backpack of Sergio Brugiatelli, a friend of the drug dealer who died in 2021, and proposed a “return horse” (the backpack in exchange for cocaine).The meeting was set for dawn in Via Pietro Cossa. But instead of Brugiatelli, two plainclothes Carabinieri officers, Mario Cerciello Rega and Andrea Varriale, were waiting for them. The attack was extremely quick. Finnegan Lee Elder, armed with an 18-centimetre knife, stabbed Cerciello 11 times in less than half a minute. Varriale, unarmed, confronted Hjorth. “It's enough!” Natale shouted before fleeing. The two were arrested shortly afterwards in a hotel room. In the first instance trial, they were both sentenced to life imprisonment. The Appeal Court and then the Court of Cassation had already reduced Elder's sentence to 15 years and 2 months. Now, with the latest ruling by the Court of Appeal, Hjorth has also had his sentence reduced.
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