American convicted in killing of Italian plainclothes officer gets house arrest after appeal

ROME (AP) — One of the two Americans convicted in the 2019 stabbing death of an Italian plainclothes police officer has been granted house arrest. State-run news agencies reported Gabriel Natale-Hjorth can serve his 11-year, four-month sentence at the home of a grandparent in the seaside town of Fregene, west of Rome. The reports cited a court ruling Monday. Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder, both from California, had been found guilty in the 2019 killing of the officer in a botched sting operation after a Rome drug deal went bad. Earlier this month an appeals court greatly reduced their original life sentences. Elder, who wielded the knife, is serving his sentence of 15 years and two months in prison.