Man sentenced to death over 2010 murder-robbery in Nagano.
NAGANO, Japan, Dec. 6 KyodoThe Nagano District Court sentenced a 35-year-old man to death Tuesday for conspiring with three others to murder and rob a family of three including his employer at a construction company last year.
A panel of three professional and six citizen judges convicted Kaoru Ikeda of conspiring to strangle the three victims at their home in the city of Nagano and steal around 4.1 million yen in cash on March 24, 2010.
Ikeda was the second suspect to be tried over the case. One of his accomplices, Tomohiro Matsubara, was sentenced to death by the district court in March and filed an appeal with the Tokyo High Court.
Presiding Judge Junko Takagi said in Tuesday's decision that there was no other choice but to issue a death sentence, noting that Ikeda's action resulted in ''the loss of three precious lives.''
The court ruled Ikeda, along with Matsubara and others, murdered Fumio Kin, 62, his son Yoshiaki, 30, and Yoshiaki's wife Yukiko Kusumi, 26, stole the money and buried their bodies in a storage yard in Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, more than 200 kilometers from Nagano.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Ikeda, while the defense argued for a prison term of 12 years.
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| Publication: | Japan Weekly Monitor |
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| Geographic Code: | 9JAPA |
| Date: | Dec 12, 2011 |
| Words: | 209 |
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