TOCHIGI (TR) – A court docket right here final week handed a 29-year-old man from Kumagaya Metropolis, Saitama Prefecture a 24-year jail time period for the homicide of a highschool woman and the abandoning of her corpse inside a rented automobile final yr.
On the Utsunomiya District Courtroom on October 18, presiding decide Toshifumi Takioka handed Tatsuya Yasuzumi, of no identified occupation, the 24-year jail time period for the homicide Azuki Sakamaki, then aged 15, and abandoning of her corpse.
“This was a brutal crime based mostly on a robust intent to kill,” decide Takioka stated. The prosecution had sought a 28-year time period.
In response to the ruling, the pair, who grew to become acquainted on social media, first met on October 17, 2023. Yasuzumi strangled her that evening contained in the rented automobile whereas it was parked in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. He then drove to the city of Kaminokawa, Tochigi Prefecture with the physique inside.
On the morning of October 19, 2023, police discovered a suspicious-looking automobile parked in Kaminokawa.
As officers approached the automobile, they discovered Yasuzumi behind the wheel within the driver’s seat. Throughout questioning, the physique of Sakamaki was discovered inside.
Wearing her college uniform, the physique of Sakamaki, who’s from Kashiwa Metropolis, Chiba Prefecture, had cuts and bruises. An post-mortem revealed that Sakamaki was strangled to demise round October 17 of that yr.
Police accused Yasuzumi of abandoning a corpse upon the invention of the physique. He was later accused of homicide.
The arrest was not the primary for Yasuzumi. In 2015, he was accused of kidnapping a sixth-year elementary college woman and finishing up an indecent assault after driving along with her in a automobile in Yokohama Metropolis, Kanagawa Prefecture.
“The concern and remorse of the sufferer, whose future was immediately minimize quick, are immeasurable,” decide Takioka added.