Trial begins for 2 Bay Area students accused of killing Italian policeman

In this combo photo released by Italian Carabinieri, Finnegan Elder, left, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth sit in their hotel room in Rome in July 2019. (Credit: Italian Carabinieri/AP via CNN)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: Feb 27, 2020 / 04:20 AM PST

Updated: Feb 27, 2020 / 04:20 AM PST

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Two California students went on trial in Italy on Wednesday in the fatal stabbing of a Rome police officer during a brawl that shocked Italy.

Finnegan Lee Elder, 20, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 19, high school classmates from Mill Valley, near San Francisco, could face life sentences for the killing last July of Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, a member of Italy’s paramilitary Carabinieri police.

Cerciello Rega and a fellow officer, Andrea Varriale, were in plainclothes when they stopped the California men after a drug deal went wrong in the early hours of July 26.

Varriale has said that he and Cerciello Rega announced they were police officers. The Americans have said that they did not, and that they mistook them for drug dealers.

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