It is attributable Finnegan Lee Elder, the Californian who on the night of July 26, 2019 killed with eleven stab wounds the deputy brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega. This was stated by the psychiatric report ordered by the court of Rome at the request of the defense of the young man accused of murder together with his friend Gabriel Natale Hjorth. For professors Stefano Ferracuti and Vittorio Fineschi, who carried out the preliminary investigation, Elder was "capable of understanding and wanting at the time of the event". The expert's profile outlines the defendant's personality by stating that "there is a person with a borderline-antisocial personality disorder of medium to high severity, a history of substance abuse (in particular Thc) and a possible post- traumatic stress disorder ".
For the experts, "however, it is not possible to demonstrate that the mental condition ascertained in the Elder has compromised the subject's free decision-making capacity at the time the criminal action was carried out". During the appraisal, the young man "reconstructed the fact with clarity and precision, pointing out his lack of knowledge of a fundamental fact for him, that is, that he did not know that the person with whom he had engaged the scuffle was a law enforcement agent , because if he had known he would have been inhibited in the homicidal action ". Ferracuti and Finesci however believe that "it is not possible to establish a causal link between the crime and the psychopathological condition. Elder, however, is a person who needs psychological and psychiatric treatment because of the mental condition and the suicidal risk it presents". The conclusions of the appraisal will be illustrated in a dedicated hearing by the end of July.
The trial today experienced a dramatic moment when Cerciello's father-in-law was seized with illness while in the courtroom the audio of the phone call to the helpers made on the night of the murder was heard. Listened then as witnesses Andrea Varriale, the carabiniere who was on patrol in plain clothes with the deputy brigadier. The military provided his version of what had happened. "We approach the front of the two and take out the card saying that we were Carabinieri - he explained -. Mario did the same thing. We did what we always do. They had nothing in hand. The two immediately attacked us. I was taken in the chest by Christmas and we rolled to the ground. At the same time I heard Cerciello screaming 'stop carabinieri', he had a proven tone of voice ".
