Cerciello murder, the reasons for the conviction of Elder and Hjorth

“The personality of the defendants is alarming despite their young age: the disconcerting interpretation of serious crimes committed in a disturbing escalation of illegality, adherence to deviant behavioral models, the exaltation of drugs and the ostentation of weapons and money which symbols of affirmation documented by the images found on their mobile phones, highlight the undoubted criminal capacity of both “. This is what the judges of the first Court of Assizes of Rome, presided over by Marina Finiti, write in the reasons for the sentence with which on May 5th they sentenced the two Americans Finnegan Lee Elder and Christian Gabriel Natale Hjorth to life imprisonment for the murder of the deputy brigadier of the carabinieri Mario Cerciello Rega killed with eleven stab wounds on 26 July 2019. A sentence that had accepted the requests of the Rome prosecutor’s office with the prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta. “In the face of such a dramatic story, the frustration of two boys both from wealthy families emerges, who are in Italy, on vacation and that evening were looking for a ‘high’ in Trastevere, they wanted to take alcohol and cocaine, only received by Brugiatelli and from Pompeii they plan the extortion request not because the sum stolen from them is important, they both admit that 80 euros was not a relevant amount for them, but the fraud suffered arouses in them anger, desire for revenge, they must prove to themselves that no one can deceive them so easily “, the judges continue. “Both at the trial continue to show – reads the motivations – substantial detachment from the events of that night and their tragic ending, never show concrete signs of repentance, no re-elaboration in a critical key of those behaviors, on the contrary they do everything to reduce the their objective responsibilities “. The judges also underline how “the attitude of the accused is always aimed at diminishing their responsibilities. No convinced and convincing attitude of critical re-elaboration of what has been committed, no repentance. In the face of these findings, there are no positively appreciable elements to recognize the general extenuating circumstances “” The two defendants acted within a program shared and wanted by both, the criminal action begins together and ends together “, the judges again write.” In fact, both Elder and Natale acted according to a preordained program in which the lethal event constitutes a foreseeable, probable consequence of the conduct actively put in place by two cores – underline the judges in the 346 pages of motivations – who fully shared the facts of that evening “. “In the present case, the existence of a defensive attitude must be ruled out. The two defendants are well aware that they are in a situation of illegality caused by themselves and from which they cannot consider themselves entitled to escape through the use of such violence, we are not in the face of an armed reaction but on the contrary to an action aimed at the offense aimed at avoiding the probable arrest by the police who intervened on the spot and qualified “, write the judges.