crime

Man gets 11 years in prison for abandoning body of fatally beaten man outside Chiba Hospital

18 Comments

The Chiba District Court has sentenced a 37-year-old man to 11 years in prison for abandoning the body of a fatally beaten man outside a hospital in Chiba city last September.

According to the court ruling on Tuesday, Daiki Tanaka, a former construction worker, conspired with another man, Toshifumi Watanabe, 43, to beat up a man who they mistook as their target, Sankei Shimbun reported. The victim, Tomohiro Shimamura, 32, happened to be in the car belonging to the man Tanaka and Watanabe were targeting.

Shimamura, who lived in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, was in his vehicle at a restaurant parking lot in Yashio City, Saitama Prefecture, when he was abducted. He was beaten with an iron pipe and left at the night entrance to Chiba Central Medical Center in Wakaba Ward at 4:45 a.m. on Sept 3. A security guard, who was on duty, told police that one of the men asked him to take care of the victim before they drove away. Shimamura died shortly afterwards.

Police retrieved an iron pipe and several blunt objects from the restaurant parking lot.

Tanaka was arrested on Sept 4. Watabe’s involvement in the case emerged after Tanaka mentioned his name during police questioning. Watabe turned himself on Sept 7.

The court heard that during questioning, Tanaka told police he felt they might have the wrong man but at the time thought Shimamura was lying to them when he told them his name.

The court ruled that Tanaka and Watabe, who is being tried separately, were likely aware that Shimura was dead when they dropped him off at the hospital.

© Japan Today

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18 Comments
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Only 11 years !!

No logic to Japan's justice system.

15 ( +18 / -3 )

I'm sorry what? They were arrested for abandoning the body or actually killing him?

16 ( +18 / -2 )

They were arrested for abandoning the body or actually killing him?

He was convicted of abandoning a body (遺体放置), just like it says in the story.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Very light sentence for this scum.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

What about the murder? Zero years for that?

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Abandoning the body? Arrest for abandoning a body?! Jail for abandoning the body?! That's clearly battery resulting in death, abandonment of the body AND failure to provide aid.

If it is in fact as written, then in some time he will walk free and there will be only "abandonment of the body" on his criminal record. What a joke...

5 ( +5 / -0 )

The Chiba District Court has sentenced a 37-year-old man to 11 years in prison for abandoning the body of a fatally beaten man outside a hospital in Chiba city last September.

11yrs for abandoning? like what everyone here has stated, what about for murder? he must have hired a really impressive lawyer...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The continual harping about the justice system in Japan, essentially by Westerners, ignores the failures of their own countries judicial system. It displays an ignorance of the application of law and the systemic and institutional parameters that determine that which frames the courts in Japan and elsewhere.

The incident occurred almost one year ago. The beating and subsequent murder of Shimamura was undertaken by two individuals. Tanaka surrendered to police and was charged - during the interrogation he implicated Watanabe.

One can speculate: It was not a random assault, but specific to beat a certain individual for an unstated reason. Shimamura was abducted in a parking lot, taken to an undisclosed location, beaten over his entire body and left face-up at the hospital, clad only in his underwear, where he expired. One of the perpetrators was described as having no known occupation, thug not being a vocational title. It would seem apparent, it was an act carried out by or for criminals.

Toshifumi Watanabe, the other perpetrator was later arrested for murder.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

11 years for abandoning a body is amazingly harsh, even by Japanese standards.

"...conspired with another man, Toshifumi Watanabe, 43, to beat up a man..."

Why didn't they charge him in connection with that?! Gotta love Japanese prosecutors: making it up as they go along. LOL.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

11 years for abandoning a body is amazingly harsh, even by Japanese standards.

Looks they were prosecuted on two more charges, false imprisonment and bodily injury resulting in death.

He seems have reportedly given cardiac massage to the victim before abandoning the body in front of the hospital, which could prove he(they) did not have intention to kill but also prove he(they) knew the victim already dead. He turned himself in to the police. Those might be the reason prosecutors' demand for imprisonment was only 12 years too.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

i abandoned my own body once during a serious drug trip but luckily i came back and picked it up before any one could sentence me to eleven years in prison

4 ( +5 / -1 )

JindAug. 26  10:00 am JST

What about the murder? Zero years for that?

The question really comes down to, did these idiots think they would get away with this? Everything about this, down to the wrist-slaps they got is

just

plain

dumb.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

11 years? Only? These idiots should rot in jail.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

To make sure I understand this correctly, the 37-year-old man that was sentenced to 11 years in prison for abandoning the body of a fatally beaten man was the one who fatally beat him… right? And you’re telling me he only got 11 years? And that the main focus wasn’t the MURDER he committed but for the abandonmentt of the actual body itself? Not to mention that the victim was abducted by these men as well. Which in that case is premeditated. This case is disturbing and I felt it did not get tried fairly. It doesn’t make sense that their sentence is based off of those charges, when clearly there was more to it than just beating someone up and fleeing the scene. Please make it make sense. These men knew what they were doing, and in doing so they ended up getting the absolute most lenient sentences for the murder that they carried out. The attempt to take him to the hospital seems skeptical to me. As if it were the plan all along making it seem like they cared for his well-being after the beating and had hope that he was going to be okay- knowing he wasn’t (in my opinion).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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