The eldest of three teenagers charged over the killing in February last year of a 13-year-old boy at a riverbank in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, pleaded guilty to murder Tuesday at the Yokohama District Court.
The 19-year-old youth, whose name is being withheld due to his age, is the suspected ringleader in the slaying of Ryota Uemura. The case is being heard by three professional and six citizen judges. Two 18-year-old youths have been indicted on the lesser charge of causing injury resulting in death.
In the first hearing of the trial, the defendant answered in the affirmative after the charges of assault and murder were read out by a prosecutor. He had earlier admitted involvement in the crime during deliberations in family court.
The hearing, expected to run from Tuesday to Thursday, will likely focus on extenuating circumstances and sentencing options.
According to the indictment, the youth repeatedly hit Uemura in the face during an attack lasting roughly 30 minutes early on Jan 17 last year at a location in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, leaving injuries that required about two weeks for recovery.
He is alleged to have killed Uemura on Feb 20 by repeatedly cutting his throat on the banks of the Tama River in neighboring Kawasaki city.
Friends of Uemura are said to have confronted the 19-year-old following the initial assault and made him apologize, which Yokohama prosecutors said significantly influenced his motive to kill.
Prosecutors alleged in their opening statement that the defendant beat up Uemura in Yokohama because the victim “was acting overly familiar despite being younger than him, and this annoyed him.” After that, Uemura’s friends turned up at the defendant’s house.
Prosecutors argued that the defendant pushed Uemura to answer whether he had told the friends about the beating, and became enraged when Uemura initially denied having done so.
After cutting Uemura on the cheek several times, the youth decided to kill him amid fear of retaliation if he left the job unfinished, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors said the suspected ringleader pinned Uemura down on the riverbank and took turns cutting him with the other two youths before forcing him into the river naked, where Uemura became unable to move. According to the prosecutors’ examination of evidence, 43 knife wounds were found on Uemura’s body, including 31 to the neck.
Lawyers for the boy claimed the killing was accidental, saying their client had not set out to kill Uemura and was handed a box cutter by another youth. “While taking turns cutting (Uemura) with the other, he became unsure of what to do next and momentarily lashed out, killing him,” counsel for the defendant said.
According to investigative sources, one of the two other youths denies his involvement in the crime, while the other admits to slashing Uemura but maintains he was forced to do so by the ringleader.
Prosecutors said Uemura’s mother told them she took him at his word when he attributed his wounds from the initial beating to having broken up a fight between his older friends. “I deeply regret that if only I had asked him more about it, the murder might not have occurred,” she was quoted as saying.
Uemura’s father also attended the trial, his sobs periodically echoing through the courtroom as he wiped away tears hearing prosecutors’ account of his son’s death.
Source: JT
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