Nicholas Pellegrino, a 29-year-old San Francisco Catholic high school teacher and track coach, is recovering after his throat was slashed in a train robbery while traveling near Milan, Italy — a survival he and his surgeons call “miraculous.”

As the Chronicle reports, Pellegrino, who teaches religion and coaches track at Archbishop Riordan High School, was traveling through San Giuliano Milanese on July 15 while visiting friends and family in Italy. As SFGate reports, shortly after boarding a train bound for Florence, Pellegrino noticed four men in a nearby row who appeared to be watching him.

“I would look up, and they would look away, but then they’d continue to look back and eye me out,” he told Staten Island Advance, his hometown newspaper. The men then suddenly rushed him, and he was stabbed in the neck in the chaos. They ran off with his luggage and personal belongings, including a crucifix he was wearing.

“I had no doubt in my mind — if I didn’t get help soon, I was going to die,” he told the Chronicle. Bleeding heavily, Pellegrino staggered to the platform at the next stop, pressed his shirt against the wound, and screamed for help.

As Daily Mail reports, paramedics arrived about 15 minutes later and rushed him to a hospital in San Donato Milanese, where doctors determined his jugular artery had been grazed. He lost more than a liter of blood. “Even the surgeons are saying it was a miracle,” he told the Chronicle.

Italian authorities arrested four suspects — men from Tunisia and Morocco — hours later at a train station about an hour away. Police told Pellegrino they believed the same group had attacked a cabdriver the night before and another train passenger earlier that day.

Pellegrino spent four days in the hospital before being discharged. In addition to his injuries, he lost his laptop, passport, and luggage.

Word of the assault quickly spread to colleagues and students. Nate Simon, assistant principal at Riordan, called Pellegrino “an integral part” of the school. “Our thoughts and prayers are with him as he deals with this terrifying incident,” he said.

A GoFundMe campaign* started by former students has raised over $43,000 to help cover medical expenses and replace stolen items. “I would never have expected that outpouring of money and support,” Pellegrino said. “It shows the impact you have being an educator is more than people might think.”

Pellegrino, who is deeply religious, said the attack has only deepened his faith. “I’m convinced the hand of God worked a miracle to ensure I did not lose my life that day.”

*Content warning: The main photo on the GoFundMe page is a bit graphic, as it shows Pellegrino being treated at the scene.

Image via LinkedIn

The long, complicated saga of the two young men from Marin County who found themselves at the center of an international crime story five years ago has resolved, in part, for one of them — but this isn't making the victim's wife very happy.

It's hard to suggest that there was wrong done "on both sides" when you're talking about the brutal stabbing of a police officer. But there certainly seemed to be complicating factors in the 2019 case of a drug deal gone wrong in Rome's nightclub district, and two non-uniformed cops who could be mistaken for a drug dealer's muscle men, especially when not everyone involved speaks the same language.

Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, both recent graduates of Tamalpais High School and aged 19 and 18 at the time, respectively, met up in Rome in July 2019 for what was meant to be a weekend of partying. Natale-Hjorth, who is half Italian and has family in the country, came to the bustling city to meet his friend Elder who'd flown in from California.

After being out partying much the night, the pair sought some cocaine from a drug dealer who, it turned out, was a police informant. The deal goes sour with the dealer's mediator leading them on a long quest, the ultimate deal gets interrupted by police but Natale-Hjorth manages to flee. The two young men, believing they were cheated, end up running off with the backpack of the dealer's mediator, believing he was trying to scam them out of 80 euros. The mediator turned to the police for help to get his backpack and cellphone back.

The police, known in Rome as Carabinieri, agree to help if the mediator can call his own phone and summon the men back to the nightlife district. Having gone back to their hotel, and worried they could face some sort of roughing up by the dealer or his henchmen, Elder brings along a hunting knife.

When they are confronted by two plain-clothed Carabinieri, who Elder and Natale-Hjorth contend did not identify themselves as police, a scuffle ensues, and Elder ends up stabbing 35-year-old Mario Cerciello Rega. Complications with traffic meant that an ambulance was slow to arrive, and Rega died from his wounds.

Elder and Natale-Hjorth flee the scene back to their hotel, but are soon arrested, and the knife is found hidden in a ceiling panel. News of the crime spreads across Europe and the US. Both teens are put in jail, and due to the outbreak of COVID-19, they aren't put on trial until 2021, at which point they were both handed life sentences.

They appealed in 2022 and had their sentences reduced — Elder's to 24 years, and Natale-Hjorth's to 22 years.

A second appeal was granted based on evidence about the officers' conduct, and took place last month. As the Associated Press reported, the court upheld the convictions, but Elder's sentence was reduced further to 15 years, and Natale-Hjorth's to 11 years and four months.

Now, as ABC 7 reports today, a judge has granted house arrest for the remainder of Natale-Hjorth's sentence. Having Italian citizenship, it appears he will be able to serve the remaining six years under house arrest at his grandmother's home near Rome. He is currently 23 years old.

"We are delighted with the outcome and look forward to welcoming Gabriel back to his family home soon," said Natale-Hjorth's family in a statement to ABC 7's Dan Noyes. (Noyes had a child who was a classmate of the two men, and has been following the story closely since it began. He and ABC7 also produced a documentary short about the crime.)

Elder, who is 24 years old, still has approximatly 10 years left on his sentence, but his family also put out a statement about the appeal saying they are "so relieved for this chapter for Gabe and his family to be over and a new phase to begin."

The UK Guardian reports that Rega's widow, Rosa Maria Esilio, said through a lawyer that she was "totally shocked" by the news of the house arrest decision.

Per the Guardian, Italian prosecutors may still appeal the reduction in the sentences in Italy's highest court.

Previously: Two Marin Men Jailed In Italy For Cop Killing Back In Court

Photo courtesy of the Natale-Hjorth family

Photo: Jay Barmann/SFist

The two Bay Area men convicted of killing an Italian police officer in Rome in a weird drug deal gone bad four years ago faced Italy's highest court this week, and the court has now granted the pair a retrial.

News broke late Wednesday afternoon that Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation has granted a retrial to 23-year-old Finnegan Elder and 22-year-old Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, who were first convicted two years ago in the stabbing death of a Roman police officer. ABC 7's Dan Noyes first reported the news in the Bay Area — and Noyes has previously disclosed that his own sons were acquainted with the men when they were in high school in Marin County.

Elder and Natale-Hjorth were 19 and 18 years old, respectively, at the time of their arrests in July 2019. They were on a whirlwind weekend in Rome, just after their first year in college, when they encountered a possibly shady drug dealer and his underling, in an attempt to buy cocaine in Rome’s Trastevere nightlife district.

The whole misadventure would end with them mistaking two plainclothed police officers — members of Rome's Carabinieri — for common thugs who wanted to rough them up or worse. And in a fatal decision, Elder pulled a knife that he was carrying with him and stabbed Vice Brigadier Mario Cerceillo Rega 11 times. Rega ultimately died from his wounds, in part, possibly, because it took too long for an ambulance to reach the scene.

From an American perspective, this was a crime, to be sure, but many of us may have sympathy for a couple of dumb kids looking for drugs who read a situation completely wrong, and thought they were fighting for their lives. From an Italian perspective, the Americans were the thugs, up to no good and carrying weapons, and this poor police officer and new father was brutally killed for no reason.

An Italian appeals court has already shown some sympathy for Elder and Natale-Hjorth, after they were initially sentenced to life in prison following their May 2021 homicide conviction. On appeal last year, the two were resentenced to 24 and 22 years respectively.

But attorneys for the two men have argued that the court has ignored their side of the story — and, in particular, the question of whether Rega and his partner clearly identified themselves as police when they confronted them and got into a scuffle. According to the young men, the officers "attacked them" when they thought they were waiting to meet a drug dealer's mediator whose backpack they had stolen.

The deadly event unfolded in just 32 seconds, as ABC 7's Dan Noyes has explained in a documentary short on the case, and another problem is that Elder didn't speak Italian. Natale-Hjorth, whose father is Italian, heard Rega tell Elder, "Stop, we are carabinieri, that's enough," as Elder tried to fight him — but Elder would not have understood what he was saying. Also, Natale-Hjorth and Elder couldn't have known that the drug dealer and his men all had an established relationship with the cops.

Natale-Hjorth scuffled with Rega's partner and says he didn't know the stabbing had even taken place. The two ran back to their hotel, where Elder stashed the knife in a ceiling panel, but the police were all over them quickly and they were arrested that morning.

As the Associated Press reported, Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation heard their case this week and is now deliberating. Although the appeals court upheld their conviction last year, the Italian legal system still allows for this final appeal, and lawyers for the two men argued that the prosecution's reconstruction of events was flawed. They also presented evidence that the officers did not initially identify themselves as police.

Previously: Italian Appeals Court Reduces Sentences for Bay Area Men Convicted In Cop Killing

Top image: A view of the exterior of Rome's criminal court before the start of the trial of US teenagers Hjorth And Elder, on February 26, 2020 in Rome, Italy. Today is the start of the trial of US teenagers Finnegan Lee Elder, 20 years old and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 18 years old, who are accused of killing the Italian Carabieniere officer Mario Cerciello Rega on 25 July, 2019. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)

An appeals court in Rome has reduced the sentences of two young men from the Bay Area who were convicted last year in the July 2019 killing of a Roman Carabinieri (policeman), but both will still serve over 20 years in prison.

It was both surprising and not last May when a criminal court in Rome handed down convictions with life sentences for both Gabriel Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder, after the pair were charged in the stabbing death of 35-year-old Carabinieri Mario Cerciello Rega. The story was complicated, but they nonetheless came across to the court as American ne'er-do-wells out partying in Rome, seeking out drugs, and then killing a police officer who had come to arrest them.

Last month, their appeal began, and it was happening amid a bit of PR scandal for the Carabinieri, after it had come to light that officers had shared a slew of messages between themselves after Rega's death with fantasies of violent, torturous deaths for the American culprits.

As ABC 7 reporter Dan Noyes reports, Elder, now 22, and Natale-Hjorth, now 21, won less harsh sentences on Thursday from an Italian appeals court, but they will still seek a second appeal, as allowed in the Italian system. Elder, who carried the knife and did the actual stabbing — as he admits — received a new sentence of 24 years in prison. Natale-Hjorth received a new sentence of 22 years. Still, this would mean their misadventure in Rome, in which they killed a man who they say they thought was a drug dealer's heavy and not a policeman, would keep them in an Italian prison until they are 43 and 40 years old, respectively.

Per ABC 7, Elder addressed the court in Italian before deliberations began in the appeal, saying, "At 22 years of age and with three years in prison, I had much time to reflect,'' and he added that he felt "remorse for the pain I caused" and for the "endless mourning" suffered by Rega's widow and family.

As Noyes previously reported in an extensive February 2020 report on the case, Elder was visiting his high school friend Natale-Hjorth that July when this tragedy took place — Natale-Hjorth spoke fluent Italian and spent his summers growing up with his father's family on coast of Italy, and he had traveled to Rome to party with his friend who flew in.

Elder attended Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep in San Francisco before transferring to Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, following a violent incident with classmate in Stern Grove that left the other boy with a traumatic brain injury. That was where he met and befriended Natale-Hjorth. Both had graduated (Elder left early and took the GRE) and had just finished a year in college — Natale-Hjorth in Santa Barbara and Elder at a junior college in San Diego — when Elder decided to take a solo trip to meet up with his friend in Rome after traveling in Germany.

The pair had only been in Rome one day when, after going out drinking and deciding to find cocaine, they set out on a fateful series of actions at one in the morning that will change their lives forever. Essentially, there's a drug deal that gets interrupted by police, because the dealer has turned into a police informant, and the boys end up running off with the backpack belonging to the dealer's mediator, believing they've been robbed of 80 euros. The mediator then cooperates with the police and asks for help getting his backpack returned, and they arrange to assist after he calls his own cellphone and summons the American boys back out — they had gone to their hotel room at this point.

They arrive back in the nightlife district only to be confronted by two plainclothed cops who they say never identified themselves as cops — Rega's partner disputes this part. A 30-second scuffle ensues, and Elder ends up stabbing Rega multiple times with a large hunting knife he's brought along for protection.

In part due to delays getting him to the hospital, Rega dies from his wounds. The two Americans were arrested the next day, and the rest is history. They have been in Italian jail cells ever since, and were put on trial last spring, following pandemic-related delays.

During the appeal, a defense attorney for Natale-Hjorth reportedly argued that his client did not even see the stabbing occur, had not participated in planning it, and could not have known it would occur.

Natale-Hjorth had originally testified that he had participated in the scuffle with Rega and his partner, and that he had helped Elder in the attempt to hide the murder weapon in their hotel room that night.

Previously: Appeal Begins Thursday In Case of Bay Area Men Convicted of Killing Roman Police Officer

Top image: Snapchat images from Natale-Hjorth's phone that were part of a Carabinieri report on the incident

The sordid and sad tale of Bay Area teens Gabriel Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder — now in their early 20s and in prison in Rome — will enter a new chapter Thursday as their 2021 murder conviction comes up for appeal.

It's been more than two and a half years since Natale-Hjorth and Elder's misadventure after a night of partying in Rome, which ended with the death of a 35-year-old police officer — or Carabinieri, as they're called in Italy. Mario Cerciello Rega died of stab wounds he received during a scuffle with Elder during an arrest gone wrong. Elder admits to the stabbing, but says it was in self-defense, and the complicated nature of the case makes for a lot of moral ambiguity and reason for doubt. But all that a Roman jury heard last year was a story of ne'er-do-well Americans up to no good, seeking drugs and trying to extort a drug dealer's middleman, and carrying around a huge camping knife that could only be used for violent acts.

Tales of the boys' drug use, social media evidence of their very American fetishization of guns and knives, and their generally aggressive personalities didn't help their case. And in May 2021, they were convicted of the murder and both sentenced to life in prison, which is the stiffest sentence possible in Italy. Starting Thursday, their appeals trial begins, as NBC Bay Area reports, and it's happening amid some renewed uproar over the treatment the pair received at the hands of the Carabinieri.

A separate trial is happening of the officers who first handled Natale-Hjorth and Elder's arrest, after public outcry over one photograph in particular, showing Natale-Hjorth blindfolded before he was to be questioned.

Much like American police officers tend to rally and a foment collective rage when one of their own is harmed in the line of duty, the Carabinieri immediately began exchanging messages after Rega's death about committing acts of violence against the American teens.

As Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported today, via transcripts from the officers' trial, officers were demanding amongst themselves that the Americans get the death penalty — which does not exist in Italy. The officers exchanged various revenge fantasies, like having the boys locked in a room and killed, even having their bodies "dissolved in acid."

One message recalled an infamous 2009 case in Italy in which a suspect was brutally beaten by police and died in custody — and two Carabinieri officers ended up sentenced to 13 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter in that case.

In a statement Wednesday, Carabinieri officials called the revelation about the officers' text messages "offensive and abominable," and they vowed that the officers involved would be disciplined.

It's not clear what sort of chances Natale-Hjorth and Elder have of getting their convictions overturned.

If you haven't seen it, ABC 7's February 2020 recounting of everything that went down on that July 2019 night and what led up to it, titled "32 Seconds: A Deadly Night in Rome," is pretty exhaustive and interesting. The full transcript, with accompanying photos and Snapchat evidence, can be found here.

Previously: Verdict Reached In Italian Murder Trial of Bay Area Youths: Both Convicted, Given Life Sentences

Top image: Snapchat images from Natale-Hjorth's phone that were part of a Carabinieri report on the incident

The two young men accused in the July 2019 fatal stabbing of a police officer in Rome were found guilty of murder by a jury on Wednesday and given the harshest sentences possible.

21-year-old Finnegan Lee Elder was found guilty on multiple counts, and so was 20-year-old Gabriel Natale-Hjorth. Elder had admitted to the stabbing, however under Italian law, both men were charged equally in the slaying.

As KPIX reports, the men were convicted of homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official, and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. And they were given the stiffest sentence possible: life in prison.

The Roman jury deliberated for twelve hours before reaching their verdict late Wednesday. Court officials, police, journalists, and others, all masked, gathered in a courtroom at 10:30 p.m. local time after learning that the jury had reached their verdict. KPIX and other Bay Area stations carried the announcement live, and both Elder and Natale-Hjorth, as well as the widow of the slain officer, were visibly emotional during the reading of the verdict.

This concludes a tale that garnered international attention — and plenty of negative PR for American tourists generally — stemming from a drug deal gone bad that ended in the tragic stabbing death of 35-year-old Carabiniere Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega. Cerciello Rega and fellow officer Andrea Varriale were in plain clothes when the approached the two Americans early on the morning of July 26, 2019. Varriale says that they identified themselves as police, but Elder and Natale-Hjorth insist they did not.

The American men, who were 18 and 19 at the time of the crime, admit to getting in a scuffle with the officers, whom they believed to be minions of a drug dealer whose go-between they had robbed of his bag and cellphone. Elder and Natale-Hjorth say they took the bag after the go-between took 80 euros from them and sold them an "aspirin-like tablet" instead of the cocaine they were seeking after a night of drinking in Rome's Trastevere district. After arranging to meet the go-between and return the bag in exchange for a refund, they were instead met by police who had been told of the bag theft. Elder, said he was grabbed by Cerciello Rega and thought he would be strangled, pulled out a knife and ended up stabbing Cerciello Rega 11 times.

In addition to being charged in the homicide, both men faced extortion charges in connection with the bag theft.

Elder's father, Ethan Elder, met with his son last week just prior to the much-delayed trial resuming, and he gave a quote from Finnegan Elder to ABC 7.

"Dad, I know I should do some time for what happened. I stupidly brought a knife to Rome," Elder said. "But I didn't attack and tackle anyone from behind them at three in the morning."

Craig Peters, an attorney for the family, said in a statement to ABC 7, "I think a fair verdict would recognize that those boys made significant mistakes that night. They went out to buy drugs, they shouldn't have been doing that. Finnegan had a knife with him, he shouldn't have had a knife with him."

Both Elder and Natale-Hjorth are graduates of Mount Tamalapais High School, and were college freshman at the time of their arrest. They have remained in Italian police custody for the last 22 months.

Update: The Associated Press reports that prior to the verdict being read, Elder told one of his lawyers, "I’m stressed." He also "took a crucifix he wears on a chain around his neck and kissed it. He also turned to his codefendant, Natale-Hjorth, and held out the crucifix toward him through a glass partition, motioning heavenward."

Elder was joined in court by his parents, and Natale-Hjorth was joined by his Italian uncle, who lives near Rome. Natale-Hjorth, who speaks Italian, had been spending the summer of 2019 with his Italian grandparents near Rome when his classmate Elder came to visit, and the two got a hotel room in the city for a few days of site-seeing and partying.

The AP notes that the trial "largely boiled down to the word of Varriale against that of the young American visitors," and the image projected to the Italian public — of Cerciello Rega's widow seated in the front row throughout the trial, often clutching a photograph of her husband and crying — was not working in the young men's favor.

It's not clear if any appeal process remains available, or whether the pair will ever be eligible for parole.

Previously: Trial of Bay Area Men Accused In 2019 Stabbing of Police Officer In Rome Concludes This Week

The legal proceedings stemming from a tragic incident in July 2019 in Rome involving two teenagers from the Bay Area are still ongoing due to the pandemic, and this week, defense attorneys will present their closing arguments and a verdict is likely.

The trial began almost 14 months ago, just before COVID-19 would hit Italy in a devastating wave that shut down the entire country, and many of us have heard most of the details in the case. Finnegan Lee Elder, now 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 20, were on vacation in Rome two summers ago when a coke deal gone bad took a tragic turn that made international headlines. As their attorneys have laid out during the court proceedings, the two men — who were both 19 at the time of the crime — were out drinking in Trastevere, Rome's nightlife district, when they decided they wanted to find some cocaine.

In one detail from the Associated Press that we had not heard before, after months in which hearings were held online sometimes without public access, we learn that the dealer's go-between whom the two young men met and paid 80 euros to ($96) handed them an "aspirin-like tablet" instead of what they were looking for. Natale-Hjorth, who speaks Italian, tried to confront the go-between, but an apparently chaotic scene ensued involving some other police arriving in the neighborhood.

Angry about the transaction, the two men snatched the unnamed go-between's backpack, containing his cellphone. They then used the phone to contact him and demand their money back — but due to some apparently symbiotic relationship with local police, the go-between called the cops to report his stolen phone, and set the two men up to be confronted by plainclothes Carabinieri, Roman police.

Enter Carabiniere Vice Brigadier Cerciello Rega, who was wearing a T-shirt and long shorts, and his also casually dressed partner Andrea Varriale. Varriale has testified that the officers identified themselves as police right away, but Elder and Natale-Hjorth have said since early in the case that they acted in self-defense because they believed they were being confronted by crime bosses or heavies. Natale-Hjorth ended up in a physical scuffle with Varriale, and Elder scuffled with the more heavyset Rega — who he believed was trying to strangle him, he said. Elder admitted to stabbing Rega with a seven-inch "military-style attack knife," and when Rega didn't let go of him, he stabbed him again. (He was actually stabbed 11 times.)

The two younger men fled the scene and tried stashing the knife behind a ceiling panel in their hotel room, where it was quickly found by police.

The prosecution contends that both men deserve life in prison, which is the harshest penalty in Italy. The judge in the case has indicated that a verdict would come down on Wednesday or Thursday.

Separately, an investigation is ongoing into the Carabinieri's treatment of the young men shortly after their arrest. A photo of Natale-Hjorth sitting blindfolded and handcuffed in custody was widely shared after an officer posted it on WhatsApp, and officers are also accused of posting unproven accusations about the suspects and images taken from the cellphones.

Both men grew up partly in Marin County and graduated from Mount Tamalpais High School.

Back in September, Elder offered a public apology in court to the family of Rega, saying, "That night was the worst night of my life because I took a man's life."

Previously: Two 19-Year-Olds From San Francisco Jailed In Italy For Stabbing Policeman

Adding further evidence to theories that China kept the coronavirus and a spreading epidemic of flu-like symptoms hidden from the world for several months before disclosing what was happening, a new study published in Tumori Journal by Italy's National Cancer Institute suggests that patients in Italy had COVID-19 antibodies as early as last October.

As Reuters reports, Italian researchers found that out of 959 healthy volunteers who were enrolled in a lung-cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020, nearly 12% had COVID-19 antibodies well before February, when the first documented case of the coronavirus appeared in the Lombardy region near Milan. The study participants were spread all over the country, with at least one COVID-positive person identified in each of 13 of Italy's regions. And a second, related antibody study that was part of the same research, conducted by the University of Siena, found four cases that dated back to the first week of October that showed the presence of SARS Cov-2 antibodies — meaning those four people had been infected in September.

"This is the main finding: people with no symptoms not only were positive after the serological tests but also had antibodies able to kill the virus," said Giovanni Apolone, a co-author of the study, speaking to Reuters.

Pandemic lockdowns in northern Italy did not begin until early March, and were not imposed nationwide until March 8. But this latest research suggests that the virus had been circulating in the country for six months at that point, perhaps in "a less symptomatic form."

Although the researchers also point to an unusual spike in severe pneumonia and flu cases in Lombardy in the last three months of 2019 — something that has been repeatedly mentioned in connection with California and other locales in the U.S. Practitioners around Italy began reporting spikes in atypical bilateral bronchitis in elderly patients, which they attributed to an aggressive new influenza virus rather than to any new virus, because none had yet been reported.

Other research has suggested that the majority of early COVID-19 cases in California could be traced to China, while early cases in New York City were primarily being transmitted by travelers from Europe.

Data collected about hospital patients in Los Angeles in late 2019, published in September 2020, suggested there was an unmistakable rise in respiratory illnesses in area hospitals that began on December 22. And multiple theories have emerged about when and how virus outbreaks may have been seeded on the West Coast last fall, with cases only first identified here as COVID-19 in late January.

A separate study by Harvard researchers found via satellite imagery of hospitals and search-engine queries there was evidence of a respiratory illness outbreak in Wuhan, China dating back to last autumn — and well before China publicly acknowledged the identification of the novel coronavirus last December.

Photo: Gabriela Clare Marino

Graphic courtroom testimony caused emotional outbursts in Rome, but the two NorCal youngsters accused of killing an Italian cop have an emerging defense of a police cover-up.  

SFist has often used the term “teen” to describe the two 2018 Mount Tamalpais High graduates arrested in July 2019 for the alleged murder of Italian police officer Mario Cerciello, over a cocaine deal that went very, very badly. But we can’t really call them “teens” anymore, as the year-long saga has now gone on to the point where accused stabber Finnegan Lee Elder is 20 years old, while Gabriel Natale Hjorth (who allegedly hid the knife used to kill Cerciello, which under Italian law makes you guilty of homicide) is still 19. The two claim self-defense as they insist they didn’t know they were in an altercation with police, and their trial started in February, though was delayed as COVID-19 ravaged that country. And KPIX reports that police testimony and recordings submitted today were so dramatic that the judge ended proceedings when Cerciello’s father-in-law “collapsed in the courtroom” as Cerciello’s widow sobbed loudly.

They were, after all, hearing a recording of Cerciello grasping for life as he slowly died from 11 stab wounds. The altercation had its roots earlier in that July 2019 day when the NorCal duo got scammed by a cocaine dealer and were apparently sold fake powder, though managed to steal the dealer’s backpack, and a meetup where the parties were supposed to square up was infiltrated by the two plainclothes police, and resulted in Cerciello’s fatal stabbing.

The other officer, Andrea Varriale, testified earlier today the two Americans attacked them immediately. “I didn’t even get to say ‘What’s your name?” when [Natale Hjorth] grabbed me, we went down, we rolled, in a kind of funny way, on the ground,” Varriale said. He insists that Cerciello did yell “Stop! Carabinieri!” (the name of an Italian police force), and added that at one point, “I looked to the left, Mario was on his feet, swaying. ‘They stabbed me, they stabbed me,’” and that “I saw the blood coming out like a fountain to the ground.”

Yet the defense has found a few holes and suspicious circumstances around the officers’ stories — namely, that the dealer who sold the fake coke was a police informant, which is why the police were so keen on making sure he was protected. Italian news source The Local reports that the dealer “was a police source [who] could answer many questions surrounding the case, including why Cerciello and Varriale left their designated patrol area, without informing central command, to track down the two young Americans.” The fact that dealer was a police source was not disclosed until the trial. There’s also the highly inconvenient matter that Natale Hjorth was blindfolded and videotaped in custody, a pretty egregious violation of protocol for which Varriale is separately on trial.

The national and international media, as you’d expect, are going pretty sensationalist on this one. Fox News is highlighting Elder’s claim that he was “beaten, spat on by police,” while the Daily Beast’s thoughtful piece “Will American Cop-Killing Kids in Italy Go Free?” points out that an illegally leaked jailhouse visit recording contains Elder admitting he knew the pair were police. While that does incriminate him, it also incriminates the police force for illegally recording a witness.

If found guilty, both Elder and Natale Hjorth face life in prison.  

Related: Family and Friends of SF Teens Accused Of Slaying of Italian Cop 'Shocked and Dismayed' [SFist]

The two young American men suspected in the stabbing death of a Carabinieri paramilitary officer in Rome last July began their trial today, and one or both of them face possible life sentences in Italian prison.

Finnegan Lee Elder of San Francisco, who has turned 20 since the crime occurred, is believed to have stabbed 35-year-old Deputy Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega repeatedly with a seven-inch blade, because he believed he and his friend were under threat by a pair of Roman drug dealers on the morning of July 26, 2019. As the story goes, Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth of Mill Valley, now 19, had arrived at a rendezvous with someone they thought was a dealer they had met earlier who jilted them in a cocaine deal. And the pair of Americans stole the man's backpack, and were meeting up to return the bag and retrieve a gram of coke.

As we now learn via the Associated Press, the dealer was actually a go-between for a bigger drug dealer, and he was also a police informant. So, when his backpack and cellphone were stolen, he reported it to the cops, and the cops sent two plainclothes, unarmed officers, Rega and partner Andrea Varriale, to deal with the situation and meet with the Americans.

The defense is expected to argue both that Natale-Hjorth was unaware that his friend even had a knife, and that Elder believed he was acting in self-defense when the two plainclothes officers approached them — not knowing that they were police, or that they unarmed.

Italian authorities later disciplined two police officers who blindfolded Natale-Hjorth during his interrogation and leaked the photos to the media.

The story made national headlines after the arrests of the two young men last summer, and drew comparisons to the Italian trial of American college student Amanda Knox, who was accused along with her boyfriend in the 2007 of their roommate and fellow exchange student Meredith Kercher. Knox was ultimately acquitted of the crime after eight years of trials and appeals.

Elder and Natale-Hjorth are both being tried for murder because under Italian law, an accomplice can be charged with murder even if they didn't have a direct hand in it.

It's not known how long the trial is expected to last.

Previously: Teen Accused In Killing Italian Cop Was Known To Attend 'Fight Nights' In SF, Injured Fellow High School Student

Italian authorities are charging two police officers for blindfolding a Marin County teen suspect and posting pictures of him to social media, while the young man awaits trial for being an accessory to murder.

Since late July, we’ve been following the story of two recent Mount Tamalpais High graduates accused of killing an Italian police officer in an alleged drug deal gone terribly wrong. While family and friends of the Marin County youngsters describe them in flattering terms like “nicest guys and neighbors I have ever met,” there have been some allegations of the pair’s prior violence, and Italian police have released photos of from the suspects smartphones showing all manner of illegal gun and drug activities. Those police may have released too many photos, though, because the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published leaked photos of 18-year-old suspect blindfolded Guantanamo-style, which officers then posted to WhatsApp along with unproven allegations about the teens.

ABC 7’s Dan Noyes has been keeping up with Italian police and journalists on the matter, and reports three Italian officers have now been charged for the misconduct. The blindfolded suspect Gabriel Natale-Hjorth is not the one charged with murder (that charge went to his companion Finnegan Elder, who has confessed to the stabbing but claims self-defense). But he is charged as an accessory to the murder, in the incident where the duo allegedly attempted to buy cocaine, were sold crushed aspirin, stole their sham coke dealer’s backpack who then called the police, and set off an incident where Elder stabbed a plainclothes police officer.

But now the blindfold photo is capturing more Italian media attention than the stabbing incident.

“That was horrible to see and was horrible for us, even for Italians to see and I figure for Americans, it was even worse," La Repubblica journalist Maria Elena Vincenzi told ABC 7. “On the WhatsApp groups, he even said that the two guys were trying to buy drugs, and because it was not proved yet, it was nothing yet, I mean it was the first day."

Two unnamed Italian officers are charged over the blindfolding and photo dissemination, while a third officer is charged with lying to investigators about whether a gun was involved. The Italian paper Agenzia Ansa reports that prosecutors had completed an investigation into the officers, which they say is “a move that frequently comes before an indictment request.”

According to a KTLA report in late November, Elder and Natale-Hjorth will face trial in Rome beginning February 26, 2020.

Related: Parents of Teen Accused in Murder of Italian Officer Say He Is 'Remorseful'

Image: Corriere della Sera via CNN

Over a week since 35-year-old Italian police officer Mario Cerciello-Rega was fatally stabbed in Rome, the parents of suspect Finn Elder are ready to talk, and they say their son is "remorseful and scared."

The parents of Elder, one of the families of the two Bay Area teens suspected in the murder of the aforementioned Italian police officer, have just issued a statement upon their arrival back in the US, outside their San Francisco home.

“We saw our son Finnegan, he was okay,” said Ethan Elder in an almost three-minute-long publicized statement about the incident. “[Our son is] tired, remorseful and scared. He has our full support, and we stand by his side [...] We look forward to the truth coming out and to our son coming home,” he adds.

The statement comes after the couple also appeared on Italian television on Tuesday.

Per Italian prosecutors, via the Associated Press (AP), “Fin” Elder slayed undercover Italian Officer Mario Rega, stabbing him 11 times with a knife; the murder weapon was later found tucked-away inside the ceiling of the boys’ shared hotel by law enforcement.

The deadly altercation began when Rega and a fellow officer approached the two boys, asking for a stolen bag they had taken from a suspected cocaine dealer. It was then that the situation took a turn for the worst, with Elder stabbing Rega in lieu of forking-over the backpack; Gabe Natale-Hjorth is only cited in reports as "punching" Rega's partner.

"We grieve for the family of the officer," an emotional Leah Elder, mother of the 19-year-old, said in the same public announcement, reading off a physical transcript. "We are just heartbroken at the loss of life," she finished.

Leah Elder also indicated the trip was a "last-minute" idea, and that the family was "awaiting further news,” refusing to comment any more on the current situation.

Photo: Courtesy of MaxPixel

More details have emerged from acquaintances and family members about Finnegan Elder, the 19-year-old who's accused in the killing of a 35-year-old Italian police officer last Friday. And it sounds like he has a history of courting violence.

Elder attended Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco prior to moving on to Tamalpais High in Marin — where he and the friend who's also been implicated in the slaying, Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, graduated in 2018. And as his uncle, Sean Elder, tells the Associated Press, Elder attended "fight nights" in a local park that "apparently resulted in many injuries."

One of these nights may have been the venue for an incident that the Chronicle reported on Tuesday: Elder was implicated in an incident at "a 2016 late-night party in Stern Grove" that left a fellow Sacred Heart student with a severe brain injury. Though the records of the incident were sealed because Elder was a juvenile at the time, sources familiar with the investigation told the Chronicle that Elder was arrested on suspicion of battery involving serious bodily injury, and was found guilty in juvenile court. Details of his sentence, or any further disciplinary action taken by Sacred Heart, are not known.

The Chronicle covered the October 2016 incident at the time, reporting that "the boy who allegedly caused the injuries later turned himself in."

Caleb Lagafua, a fellow football player at Sacred Heart, tells KPIX that the victim was "put into a coma," and kids came to school afterwards hearing that "Finn," as they called Elder, was in jail.

"I remember Finn tried to tell me the whole story" Lagafua tells the station. "He told me that it wasn’t his initial contact that put him in a coma. He said that after he punched him, he fell and he hit his head on the rock."

Lagafua says he didn't run with the same "bad kids" as Finn, and adds "I just know that Finn had a lot of anger in him."

Sean Elder, the uncle who is acting as the family's spokesperson, issued a statement, per the Chronicle, saying, "I've known Finn for his entire life and have never seen him be violent, or even lose his temper." And he again clarified to the Chronicle that the 2016 incident stemmed from a "a mutual pre-agreed upon fight, which many football team members knew about and egged on." He also says that Elder did not transfer to Tamalpais High because of any disciplinary action — only because his father moved to Mill Valley.

The victim in the 2016 punching incident apparently recovered from his injuries after a long process, and ultimately finished high school and went on to college. The Chronicle did not reach him for comment.

Elder has said that he stabbed the unarmed Italian Carabinieri officer, Mario Cerciello Rega, in self-defense. He claims the officer was attempting to restrain him by the neck, though a judge said there were no obvious marks of strangulation on Elder's neck. Rega was stabbed 11 times.

Observers have noted that Elder's middle finger appeared to have been amputated in the photo seen below from Italian authorities (left). Elder's mother tells CNN that was the result of an "industrial accident" several years ago, which also left his hand partially paralyzed.

Related: 19-Year-Old Bay Area Man Jailed In Italy For Cop Killing Claims Self-Defense

The 19-year-old primary suspect in the Friday killing of 35-year-old Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega in Rome has told a judge in the case that he acted in self-defense.

Suspect Finnegan Lee Elder, who has reportedly confessed to the stabbing, says that he felt pressure on his neck in the scuffle with the plainclothes officers, and he feared he was going to be strangled. The Associated Press reports that Judge Chiara Gallo explained the defense in a written order regarding the jailing of Elder and his 18-year-old friend Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, but expressed doubt about the story because Elder did not have visible signs of strangulation on his neck.

Judge Gallo further said the two teens had shown a "total absence of self-control," and were therefore dangerous.

As reported earlier, Elder and Natale-Hjorth were staying in Rome and attempting to procure cocaine from an alleged dealer, who they say cheated them and sold them some other substance. The pair responded by stealing a bag belonging to the man and ransoming it via his cellphone, which was in the bag. The alleged dealer called police, and two plainclothes officers, including Rega, went to a rendezvous point that had been arranged by the Americans. Rega was then stabbed 11 times in an ensuing scuffle.

The two friends are 2018 graduates from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. Elder was described by a neighbor who said she'd known him since he was born as "one of the nicest guys and neighbors I have ever met."

A high school friend, Matt Kearney, described Natale-Hjorth to ABC 7 as being "a bit sketchy, but nothing this bad."

Rega's funeral was held today in his hometown of Somma Vesuviana, in the same church where he was married six weeks earlier. In a eulogy, Archbishop Santo Marciano said Rega spent his off-duty hours "dishing out hot meals to the homeless in Rome's main station and accompan[ying] ailing faithful to religious shrines, including in Lourdes, France."

Previously: Family and Friends of SF Teens Accused Of Slaying of Italian Cop 'Shocked and Dismayed'