- Cerciello murder, colleague Varriale testifies: "Mario was a teacher for us"
- Murder Cerciello, the report: Elder attributable "Capable of understanding and wanting"
Share
July 16, 2020 "Andrea don't talk to anyone about this service order thing, Ottaviani (head of the police station in Piazza Farnese at the time of the events) already knows everything, come to me and fill it out".This is what Marshal Gaetano Armao says, on July 28, 2019 in a message sent to Andrea Varriale, before the patrol colleague of Mario Cerciello Rega was called by the superiors to tell about the events of July 26. The message was announced today in the courtroom during the trial against the two Americans. Armao is the superior of Varriale.
The voice message was produced, during the last hearing in the trial on the murder of the carabiniere Mario Cerciello Rega, by the defense of defendant Finnegan Lee Elder.
"The question of the order of service must be resolved - says Armao - it is empty, you must fill it in at least with the intervention", referring to the identification of Sergio Brugiatelli, the alleged broker of the Trastevere pushers.
On the point during the hearing, Varriale explains: "In Piazza Mastai I had taken a note on a sheet of paper with Brugiatelli's details and then calmly brought it back to the barracks".
Varriale: with the gun it would have been worse
"With or without a gun things would not have changed, perhaps if we had the weapon it would have been worse". Andrea Varriale, the carabiniere who was on patrol, in plainclothes, with Vice-Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega on the night of July 26 is convinced of this. The military continued his testimony in the trial involving Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriele Natale Hjorth, accused of murder. A long reconstruction in which Varriale tried to clarify some aspects of a complex story. On the gun, in particular, the carabiniere admitted that he had made "a stupid mistake, a lightness" when he told the fake, a few days after the fact, to Colonel Antonio Petti, former head of the Roma group, stating that he had with him that night the gun and that he had given it to his "station commander in hospital". Varriale claimed the choice not to bring the Beretta for practical reasons, but to "many colleagues, immediately after the facts, I said I didn't have it".
Cerciello's colleague reiterated that that night they qualified and showed the plaque of recognition. "We weren't worried that night. It seemed like a trifle, as a chicken thief. In Trastevere there are many rip-offs that are made for those looking for drugs - he added -. That seemed to us a 'sòla' and the tablet found in the square Mastai was clearly tachipirine. "
During the cross-examination, answering questions from one of Elder's defenders, the military was unable to explain why there were no traces of messages and calls on his cell phone made on 26 July. "There are the messages of 25 and 27 July. Those of 26 are not," said lawyer Renato Borzone in the courtroom.