Officials seek faster trial for US teens in Rome cop slaying

ROME – The lawyer of one of the two young Americans jailed in Rome over the slaying of a Carabinieri police officer says prosecutors have requested a speedier trial for the two teenagers.

Finnegan Lee Elder’s lawyer, Renato Borzone, said on Thursday that Rome prosecutors have requested an “immediate trial” procedure that skips the preliminary hearing step.

Elder and his friend Gabriel Natale-Hjorth were jailed in July as authorities investigated their alleged roles in the fatal stabbing of Mario Cerciello Rega.

Italian prosecutors said Elder confessed to knifing the officer during a scuffle, while Natale-Hjorth allegedly assaulted the slain officer’s partner at the end of a chain of events sparked by a drugs deal that went wrong.

Elder and Natale-Hjorth are both held at Rome’s Regina Coeli prison.