American convicted of cop killing granted house arrest

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 15 - A Rome court on Monday accepted a request for Gabriele Natale Hjorth, one of two young Americans convicted of the homicide of Carabinieri police officer Mario Cerciello Rega in the Italian capital in July 2019, to be released from jail to house arrest.
    The decision comes after Natale Hjorth's sentence was reduced on appeal from 22 years to 11 years and four months earlier in July.
    The court ruled that he should stay under house arrest at his grandmothers home in Fregene, a town on the coast near Rome.
    The other young American convicted of the killing, Finnegan Lee Elder, was cut to 15 years and two months in prison from 24 years.
    Elder was found guilty of killing Cerciello Rega with 11 stab wounds inflicted by a combat knife he had brought over from the US while Natale Hjorth assaulted the slain officer's partner at the end of a chain of events sparked by a drugs deal that went wrong. (ANSA).