SAPPORO ¨C The Sapporo District Court on Thursday sentenced three youths over a robbery resulting in death, in which a 20-year-old college student was beaten to death by six people in?a park in Ebetsu,?Hokkaido, in 2024.
Presiding Judge Masaki Takasugi sentenced former college student Haoto Kawamura, 21, to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors had sought an indefinite term.
Another defendant, former high school student Kaito Takizawa, 19, was given 20 years in prison, as sought by prosecutors. A boy age 16 at the time of the incident was given an indeterminate sentence of nine to 13 years, while the prosecutors had called for one of 10 to 15 years.
The trial of the two main suspects, one of whom is former part-time worker Yuto Kawaguchi, 19, will open on July 13. The date of the trial of former college student Ama Yagihara, 21, who was the victim¡¯s girlfriend, has not yet been decided.
According to the ruling, the three defendants conspired with Kawaguchi and the other main suspect to beat to death the victim, Tomoya Hase, on Oct. 25 and 26, 2024. They also stole cash and a credit card from him, saying, ¡°Give us everything.¡±
Takasugi described their act as ¡°extremely brutal and heinous.¡±
The judge noted that the attack was triggered by problems in the relationship between Hase and Yagihara, saying that ¡°people not party to the problem interfered, when things should have been resolved through discussion,¡± adding that there were no grounds for leniency.
On Kawamura¡¯s behavior, Takasugi ruled that she led the crime by planning the assault and the robbery. He noted that Takizawa began kicking Hase as if play-fighting and the boy encouraged the others to escalate the attack.
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