Ex-U.S. Marine’s Indefinite Term for Slaying Okinawa Woman Upheld
September 21, 2018
Naha, Okinawa Pref.- Fukuoka High Court's branch in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, upheld on Thursday a lower court decision that sentenced former U.S. Marine Kenneth Shinzato to an indefinite prison term over the murder of a young Japanese woman in the southernmost prefecture.
Presiding Judge Masamichi Okubo rejected an appeal from Shinzato, 34, against the Naha District Court ruling in December last year.
During the trial, the defense side admitted Shinzato, then a civilian U.S. base worker, had raped the woman and abandoned her body but denied the murder charge by challenging the credibility of his confessions to interrogators.
But Okubo pointed out that Shinzato provided detailed explanation about how he committed the crime.
Recognizing that the defendant had stabbed the woman, then 20, with a knife, the judge ruled that the lower court's confirmation of Shinzato's murderous intention was reasonable.
"We have a massive hole in our heart that cannot be filled up," bereaved family members said in a statement released after the high court decision.
According to the district court ruling, Shinzato killed the woman on a street in the city of Uruma on the night of April 28, 2016, by beating her head with a bar and stabbing her several times around the neck while attempting to rape her.
He abandoned her body in woods in the neighboring village of Onna.Jiji Press
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