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The Saga District Court has sentenced a 26-year-old man to 24 years in prison for killing a a 79-year-old woman at her home in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, in September last year.
The court convicted Koshi Yamaguchi, a university student who lives in Nagasaki City, of killing Chikusa Otsuka on Sept 10, 2021, Kyodo News reported.
During the trial, Yamaguchi admitted to beating Otsuka about the head with a hammer but denied intent to kill. He turned himself in at a police station in Oita Prefecture on Sept 13 and said he had committed a “terrible crime.” He had a hammer with him in his rucksack, which police later determined was the murder weapon.
The court heard that Yamaguchi struck Otsuka several times with the hammer while she was doing weeding work at her relative’s home next door at around 1 p.m. on Sept 10. A neighbor heard screams and called 110.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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TokyoLiving
And the gallows ???...
garypen
Putting aside whether or not he intended to kill her, what was his reason for striking her with the hammer in the first place?
Sanjinosebleed
A bit more meat on the motives would be nice!
To hit someone in the head with a hammer though means you were trying to kill regardless of what he says! Even a soft blow with a hammer to the head could kill someone!
Yubaru
Japanese courts dont sentence people to death for murdering one person. There just might be a first time, somewhere in the near future, but not this time!
602miko
What was the reason why he did that?
Michael Machida
Reasoning in Japan? Heh, heh...
socrateos
Keep him in prison for life.
naturalboke
The reason he stated which is mentioned in Japanese news articles is that he was upset because he had failed an exam.
Also not mentioned here is the fact the police did not relaise it was murder UNTIL he had handed himself in. They originally thought she had fallen and hit her head!
u_s__reamer
Is he a Japanese Raskolnikov? Or even more uncanny, had he watched that murder scene in "復讐するは我にあり” (Vengeance is Mine)? Whatever drove him to this heinous crime, he is surely a dangerously disturbed individual who belongs in a prison hospital and studied as a case of psychopathy.
Rodney
Why?
Garthgoyle
Was some of the necessary info left out of the article on purpose?
Anyway, he should have got a life in prison sentence. Instead, he'll be out at 50, take a walk around and kill someone else he's never seen before, just because.
Stewart Gale
A single murder case never resuits in the death penalty. And neither it should, in my opinion
With this case, once again I am confused by Japanese court sentencing.
This guy got 25 years, yet last week the guy who murdered his partner and tried to murder her daughter only got 15 years.
kaimycahl
TOTAL INTENT. This guy had intentions to kill someone if not the elderly lady he was all in for murder. Yamaguchi admitted to beating Otsuka about the head with a hammer but denied intent to kill. My logic tells me.” He had a hammer with him in his rucksack" so why would he carry the weapon around if he didn't have intent to use it? 24 years is not enough I think he should see the dark gallows and then be left hanging above them once the trap door drops!