Akita woman who killed daughter, boy gets life term

AKITA (Kyodo) A 35-year-old woman was sentenced to life Wednesday for murdering her 9-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old neighbor boy in the town of Fujisato, Akita Prefecture, in 2006.

Suzuka Hatakeyama

The high-profile crimes by Suzuka Hatakeyama were "heinous," but she avoided the death sentence demanded by prosecutors because "the murder of the boy was not premeditated," Akita District Court presiding Judge Toshiro Fujii said in handing down the ruling.

Hatakeyama was convicted of killing her daughter, Ayaka, 9, in April 2006 by pushing her off a bridge into a river, and strangling Goken Yoneyama, 7, the following month at her home.

The court applied the charge of murder to both killings, rejecting the defense argument that the charge of negligence resulting in death should be applied to the daughter's death.

The defense immediately appealed the ruling to a higher court.

The court determined that Hatakeyama had intended to kill her daughter, rejecting her counsel's claim that she had not.

Hatakeyama initially confessed to investigators that she intended to kill her daughter, according to police, and the prosecutors claimed her confession proved Hatakeyama's intent to kill.

The court said her confession to investigators was trustworthy.

It said Hatakeyama felt her daughter was a nuisance, the contention made by prosecutors.

The court said that when the girl asked to see some fish, Hatakeyama's irritation intensified and she pushed her daughter off the bridge into the river.

Hatakeyama's counsel had denied she had intended to kill her daughter, maintaining she just brushed the girl off when her daughter, who was sitting on the railing of the bridge, tried to hold onto her.

The court said Hatakeyama was mentally competent when she strangled Yoneyama.

The defendant had admitted killing the boy, but her mental competence at the time was the other focal point of the trial.

The defense claimed she was in a state of diminished capacity.

On the boy's slaying, the prosecutors said Hatakeyama killed him to "divert suspicions from the public."

Judge Fujii took up the prosecutors' claim, saying Hatakeyama initially came up with the idea to "abduct" Yoneyama to divert the police investigation from her daughter's death.

But after the boy was invited to Hatakeyama's house on May 17, 2006, she felt sudden jealousy and hatred toward him when she saw him happily playing and suddenly decided to kill him, the judge said.

Hatakeyama then strangled the boy with a cord and later dumped his corpse on a river bank.

These circumstances, however, made it difficult for the court to say the murder was premeditated, the judge said.

At end of the court session, Hatakeyama turned toward Yoneyama's parents and made a "dogeza" deep bow — a show of apology in an extreme manner.

She said, "I'm sorry I took your son." Yoneyama's mother apparently ignored the apology by closing her eyes and turning her back.

Neighbors showed mixed reactions to Wednesday's ruling, with some expressing anger and others accepting that she was sentenced to life instead of death.

"I wonder why (Hatakeyama) doesn't deserve death," a 70-year-old farmer said. "I believe the sentence is too lenient."

But an 80-year-old woman said a life term is as heavy as the death penalty. "Execution takes only seconds, but a life term takes years. It's better to give (Hatakeyama) years to repent her crime," she said.

Wednesday's trial session drew some 3,000 people who lined up outside the court hoping for one of just 26 seats allocated for observers.