Two US students who butchered newlywed Italian policeman with a seven-inch Rambo knife are jailed for life in Rome
A PAIR of US students who stabbed an Italian police officer to death with a Rambo knife in a botched drugs sting have been jailed for life.
Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, 20, must serve Italy’s stiffest sentence of at least 21 years behind bars for killing Italian cop Mario Cerciello Rega in 2019.
"As soon as I felt his hands squeezing my neck, I instinctively took my knife and hit him a few times in an effort to get him off me," he said.
Last month prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta argued that the pair should be given life sentences, which she described as "a just penalty".
Cerciello Rega’s widow, Rosa Maria Esilio, sat in the front row during the trial clutching a photo of her husband, who was killed just 43 days after the couple had got married.