The audio message of the alleged agreement The audio was sent on July 28 – two days after the murder – before Varriale was called by the superiors to tell the facts. “We need to fix the service order issue, it’s empty, you have to fill it out at least with the intervention,” said Marshal Armao in the message. The reference is to the identification of Sergio Brugiatelli, the alleged broker of the Trastevere pushers to whom the two Americans had stolen the backpack.
The witness – Varriale continued his testimony before the judges of the first court of Assize in the trial that sees defendants for competition in murder Finnegan Lee Elder e Gabriele Natale Hjorth. “With or without a gun things wouldn’t have changed, maybe if we had the weapon it would have been worse,” he said.
In the long reconstruction Varriale has tried to clarify some aspects of a complex story. On the pistol, in particular, the carabiniere admitted that he had made “a stupid mistake, a lightness” when he told the colonel a few days after the incident Antonio Petti, former head of the Roma group, claiming that he had the ordinance pistol with him that night 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. “That night we weren’t worried. 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 ‘sóla’ and the tablet found in the square Mastai was clearly tachipirine. ”
The military also explained that “Cerciello’s card and personal belongings” found them on the “external wall of the First Aid of the Holy Spirit”, the hospital where they were taken after the dramatic struggle with the two American students.
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 messages from 25 and 27 July. Those from 26 no,” said the lawyer Renato Borzone in the classroom.
Varriale then reported on the stages of the arrest of the two defendants and the story of the bandage of Natale Hjorth. “So I saw him in a room in the barracks in via in Selci and I was surprised, I had never seen an arrested person kept in that way. It seemed to me a very strange thing.” The witness also told of the case of the photo that appeared in the media. “I was absolutely unaware of the fact that the photograph had come out. The investigation of the Arma on this started immediately. On 28 July I was called by the then company commander Major Aniello Schettino. I met Colonel Antonio Petti, the then commander of the Rome group, in an informal interview with him I said that I had not taken the photograph “.
During the hearing, Varriale also told of the video he made with his mobile phone at Christmas while he was blindfolded, which ended up in the investigation documents. “I wanted to associate the voice, which I had on Whatsapp because Cerciello had recorded a phone call between Christmas and Brugiatelli, to the face and so I asked him some questions,” he explained. The witness also recalled the figure of his colleague on patrol: “Mario – he said – was always on the front line. He was our teacher, he was the most expert. Some of our investigations started precisely from his intuitions, he was the most expert. of all. He was absolutely not a violent and I learned a lot from him. Our approach in these interventions has always been peaceful “.
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