US Sailor taken to Japanese prosecutors for murder
This is the story that the majority of foreigners in Japan didn’t want to read. The US Sailor who had been arrested for fatally stabbing to death a taxi cab driver in Yokosuka last month has been sent to Japanese prosecutors. This, pretty much, means he is going to be found guilty. As I have mentioned before, Japan has something like a 99% conviction rate if a case goes to prosecutors and to court. This story, once again, comes from Kyodo News:
U.S. sailor sent to prosecutors over taxi driver’s murder
Saturday 5th April, 01:00 PM JST
Police sent a 22-year-old U.S. sailor to prosecutors Saturday over the murder of a taxi driver in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture last month. While Olatunbosun Ugbogu, a Nigerian national, has denied an intention to kill Masaaki Takahashi, 61, police believe the crew member of the 7th Fleet cruiser Cowpens assaulted Takahashi with apparent murderous intent as the stab wound reached the driverfs lung from his shoulder.
Ugbogu has told his lawyer he heard a eevoiceff ordering to him to stab someone and that his victim could have been anybody.
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I am guessing nobody is going to believe a possible plea of temporary insanity? The main question should be: why would he carry an 8″ kitchen knife with him? Was it for self defence or was the attack with pre-meditation and intent? If the latter then he could be looking at a 1st degree manslaughter charge and 25 years eating rice and fish heads in a Japanese cell. If not, it might be 15 years. Regardless, it puts the US military and foreign community in general in Japan under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. This is the time when a couple of American teenagers stealing $40 or so from a taxi-driver can become the biggest crime story on the Japanese news websites (ahead of a Japanese man being arrested for murder). Well if he is guilty then he deserves to have the proverbial book thrown at him.
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