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The Saitama District Court has sentenced a 19-year-old man to between seven and 12 years in prison for killing a 31-year-old man whose body was found inside a minivan in the parking lot of an apartment building in Wako City on May 10, 2020.
The defendant, who cannot be named because he is a minor, and a 24-year-old man were arrested on charges of murder and abandoning a corpse, Sankei Shimbun reported. The 24-year-old suspect, Kodai Igarashi, has already received a four-year prison term.
According to the court ruling on Thursday, the two men and the victim, Kazumasa Iwabuchi, ran a telephone scam operation targeting elderly people. Police said the three apparently had a dispute, which resulted in Iwabuchi’s death.
A resident of the apartment building called 110 on May 10 and reported that a white minivan had been parked in the same spot for about a week. When police arrived, they found Iwabuchi’s body wrapped and bound in a blanket, with his feet protruding, in the back of the vehicle.
The body had begun to decay but several knife wounds were evident in the upper part. A knife was found in the minivan.
The minivan had been reported stolen from a company parking lot in Tokyo on April 13. Surveillance camera footage showed two men resembling the suspects getting into the minivan. Furthermore, DNA in the minivan matched that of the 19-year-old suspect.
© Japan Today
18 Comments
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Ricky Sanchez
7-12 years is not a long time for murder. In "developed" countries he would be looking at 18-life (30 years). I am assuming Japanese prison is not like America though...
Sandra Groth
He's a minor (under 20 years old) according to Japanese law therefore this sentence is expected.
Random
They’ll both be released in their 20s...don’t think it’s the last we’ll hear about these two.
Michael Machida
In a developed country the sentence would be much longer.
commanteer
On the other hand, it's hard to get worked up over a guy who scammed elderly people of their life savings for a living.
rainyday
Yeah, but the guys who killed him also scammed elderly people out of their savings. The sentences really are shockingly light unless there is more to the story.
therougou
Still got twice as long as the mother who killed her two kids.
garypen
Maybe the argument that resulted in his murder was that he wanted to leave the gang and/or stop scamming the elderly.
shogun36
Give me a second, so I can shed a tear.........
OK, I'm good.
They should just have death match between the two remaining breathing scum.
Where the "winner" gets 7 - 12 years and the "loser" gets a body bag.
quercetum
Is the sentence only for murder? What about for scamming the elderly?
NCIS Reruns
Good timing as the story I just read in the Kuchikomi section deals with the bill going before the Diet to put more teeth in the law dealing with juvenile offenders. But since the length of sentences is left to the discretion of the judge(s), probably the only difference after the new law takes effect would be that it would become legal to make the 19-year-old criminal's name public.
WilliB
Of course every murder is a crime, but "ore ore" telephone scammers killing each other really does not make me loose sleep.
u_s__reamer
As the old proverb asserts, "No honour among thieves".
BackpackingNepal
New modern Japanese punishment aren't that tough and rough it used to be. Going smooth over western human rights?
Asakaze
Story with a happy end: one scumbag dead, two others behind bars. I suppose their dispute was not caused by guilty conscience.
WilliB
Asakaze
That is a pretty safe assumption.
Sal Affist
It seems Mr. Igarashi got a 4-year sentence because he confessed first and blamed the actual murder on the teenager. The first one to make a deal often gets the lightest punishment!