The Nagoya District Court on Wednesday sentenced two men to death and one to life in prison for murdering a woman in 2007, in a crime that caught public attention as an Internet site was used to attract ‘‘crime mates.’’
Tsukasa Kanda, a 38-year-old former newspaper salesman, and Yoshitomo Hori, 33, received death penalties, while Kenji Kawagishi, 42, was given a life term for voluntarily reporting to police after the slaying.
Hori and Kawagishi were unemployed at the time of the murder.According to the ruling, the defendants forced 31-year-old company employee, Rie Isogai, into a car on a road in Nagoya on the night of Aug 24, 2007, stole her money, beat her multiple times and strangled her with a rope. They later abandoned her body in a forest in Gifu Prefecture.
The murder case outraged the public, not only because of its cruelty but the fact that the three defendants met via a mobile phone Internet site seeking ‘‘crime mates.’’ The revelation led the court to mention specifically the nature of such Internet-linked crimes in its ruling as a ‘‘serious threat to society.’’
According to the Japan Federation of Bar Association, it was only the second ruling in the country that handed death sentences to more than one defendant for the murder of one person. The only previous case known to the association was a 1988 Supreme Court ruling that sent two to death row.
Presiding Judge Hiroko Kondo said the motives of the three left no grounds for leniency as ‘‘each of the three committed the crime for the purpose of getting some easy money.’’‘‘They did not listen to the victim’s pleas and carried out the criminal act,’’ Kondo said. ‘‘There was no mercy, and it was chilling act.’’
According to the prosecutors’ closing argument, Kawagishi turned himself in because he was afraid of facing the death penalty. The police found Isogai’s body and arrested Kanda and Hori based on Kawagishi’s account of the murder.
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