Woman gets life in prison for killing father with insulin and brother with carbon monoxide

The Osaka District Court on Tuesday sentenced a 48-year-old woman to life in prison for killing her diabetic father and brother in 2018.

In the lay jury trial, which began in August, Akemi Adachi was accused of killing her father Tomio by giving him a large dose of insulin, and killing her then 40-year-old brother Masamitsu by making it look like he committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning at their home in Sakai city, Sankei Shimbun reported.

According to the ruling, Adachi, who was the president of a family construction company in Sakai, killed Masamitsu, who managed another company, at their parents' house in Naka Ward sometime between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on March 27, 2018. Prosecutors claimed that Adachi gave her brother sleeping pills.

Adachi called Masamitsu's wife and urged her to come to their parents' home because something had happened to Masamitsu. When Masamitsu's wife arrived just before 7:30 p.m., Adachi showed her a suicide note and said Masamitsu had shut himself in the toilet on the second floor. The toilet door had been sealed with an adhesive bond. When Masamitsu's wife and Adachi managed to open the door, they found Masamitsu’s body lying on the toilet floor. Traces of charcoal briquettes were found in the toilet.

Masamitsu was taken to hospital where his death was listed as a probable suicide due to carbon monoxide poisoning. However, traces of sleeping pills were found in his body after an autopsy. Furthermore, the empty adhesive bottle was not found inside the toilet, but in another room, along with a lighter. Police learned that Adachi had been prescribed sleeping pills which they believe she somehow gave to her brother via a spiked drink. A suicide note, purportedly from the victim, was found by his wife who said the writing did not look like Masamitsu’s. Police said they found the text of the note on Adachi's computer.

The Adachis' 67-year-old mother was also found collapsed at the house that day. She told police later that she blacked out after drinking a matcha latte made by Akemi.

The siblings' father, who had diabetes, had been brain dead due to low blood sugar since collapsing at the home in January 2018. Prosecutors claimed Akemi was responsible for his condition, too, by giving him a large dose of insulin as well as sleeping pills. He died of encephalopathy in hospital in June that year.

After her arrest, Adachi denied any wrongdoing and maintained that her brother took his own life out of remorse over killing their father. She told TV media before her arrest that she had nothing to gain from killing her brother. But prosecutors said that life insurance and a dispute over inheriting their father's business were motives for her actions.

Adachi remained silent throughout the trial.

She also faced allegations of slandering Masamitsu’s wife in April and May of 2018.

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