Life term stands for man who killed two at age 19

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) The Fukuoka High Court on Monday upheld a life sentence for a 24-year-old Chinese man who was 19 when he killed two people and wounded another in robberies in 2001 and 2002.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty and appealed an April 2005 verdict by the Oita District Court. That court ruled the defendant did not intend to kill one of his victims and therefore did not warrant the death penalty.

The man's name has been withheld as he was a minor at the time of the crimes.

According to the district court, the man conspired with four other foreign students at Beppu University to steal cash cards from Satoshi Yoshino, 73, who was the guarantor for one of them. In the process, they fatally stabbed him and seriously wounded his wife, Emiko, 77, at their home in Kitsuki, Oita Prefecture, on Jan. 18, 2002.

Of the four involved in the Oita case, Kim Min Su, a 31-year-old South Korean, was given 15 years Monday instead of the life term meted out by the district court, and a 14-year sentence for An Fengchun, a 28-year-old Chinese, was upheld.

The two other suspects in the Oita case -- Po Zhe and Zhang Yue, both Chinese nationals -- returned to China after the crime and are on an international wanted list.

The defendant whose life term was upheld had also conspired with Po in the 2001 fatal stabbing of a 35-year-old woman sent from a sex parlor to a hotel in Osaka. The two also robbed her of her cash cards.

In the Oita case, Yoshino's relatives filed a damages suit against the five perpetrators. The Oita District Court ruled the defendants "clearly had intent to kill" and ordered them to pay a combined 76 million yen.

SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) A man was sentenced to death Monday for killing his wife in 2005 and slaying a colleague in 2004 in Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The defense sought leniency, arguing that Osamu Okura, 37, was suffering from depression at the time of the murders. Presiding Judge Toshinori Takehana of the Shizuoka District Court dismissed this argument.

Okura, who worked at a co-op store, fatally stabbed his 37-year-old colleague in a car in Yaizu on Sept. 16, 2004, because he was upset by the man making critical comments about Okura's mistress. Okura strangled his 36-year-old wife on Sept. 9, 2005, after she learned of his extramarital affair.