Intruder
who killed couple to hang
Tuesday,
Oct. 3, 2006
Kyodo News
The
Tokyo District Court sentenced a 29-year-old man to death
Monday for killing and robbing his landlord and the
landlord's wife in Tokyo in 2002.
Xie Yidi, a Chinese national, told the court he stabbed the
couple -- Isamu Hayakawa, 64, and Yoko Hayakawa, 57 --
accidentally and denied intending to kill them.
Presiding Judge Hiroshi Narikawa said Xie's crimes, in
which he repeatedly stabbed his victims, were extremely
heinous.
"It is natural that the family (of the dead) seek the death
penalty, as Xie took the lives of the Hayakawas, who had
done nothing wrong, only to satisfy a desire for cash," he
said.
Prosecutors had demanded the death sentence.
The
Japan Times
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