US Marine gets 4 years over fatal car crash in Okinawa

April 11, 2018

Naha, Okinawa Pref.- A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced a US Marine to four years in prison over drunk and negligent driving causing death in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan.

The driving by Lance Cpl. Nicholas James-McLean was extremely dangerous and he was at serious fault, Toshihiro Shibata, presiding judge at Naha District Court, said in handing out the sentence.

Public prosecutors had sought a six-year prison term against James-McLean, 22, who belongs to the US Marine Corps' Camp Kinser in the Okinawa city of Urasoe.

According to the ruling, a US military vehicle driven by James-McLean collided with a light truck in Naha, Okinawa's capital, in the morning of Nov. 19 last year, killing the light truck's driver, 61-years-old Japanese national Hidemasa Taira.

The crash occurred when James-McLean's car went straight across an intersection despite a red light at some 88 kilometers per hour while driving drunk, according to the ruling. Jiji Press