Man convicted of murdering Japanese tourist in Grand Canyon sentenced to life in prison

Friday 20th June, 03:29 PM JST

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Altria at 04:18 PM JST - 20th June

Poor woman, I bet she didn't even have that much money.

On the other hand, there's no denying that

Randy Redtail Wescogame

is an AWESOME name
blvtzpk at 04:24 PM JST - 20th June

And please, no "j gals are too trusting and naive" statements.

Geee, rjd_jr, I think the writer of the article did this already:

after luring her off a main trail by offering to guide her to scenic waterfalls.
Notginger at 04:34 PM JST - 20th June

Why did he stab her? Why not just throw her over the edge and claim she fell?
nandakandamanda at 04:56 PM JST - 20th June

Notginger. He probably needed to be 100% sure she was dead, since she had already seen his face. She may have continued to look at him with puzzled eyes, so he continued stabbing her.
flammenwerfer at 05:40 PM JST - 20th June

you fall of a 100m plus cliff in the GC and you are 99.99% surely going to buy the farm.
bamboohat at 09:32 PM JST - 20th June

No evidence at all she was naive.

Girl is dead, right? So the information that he "lured her off" came from the killer, right?

So who knows exactly how he got her alone. He could have conked her in the head from behind and then dragged her off, and said something about luring her away later to make it not sound as bad...

That does suck, though, going on a vacation and getting killed.
pizzaboy at 10:00 PM JST - 20th June

No evidence at all she was naive.

hahaha, you're kidding right? "She was reported missing a day after she went hiking on the remote Havasupai Indian reservation."

all alone hiking in a remote area in a foreign country, naivity at its finest.
pizzaboy at 10:01 PM JST - 20th June

should read "naivety"
OssanULTRA at 11:55 PM JST - 20th June

Actually there are quite a few women of various nationalities who travel to foreign lands alone. Unless the traveller was deliberately visiting a war zone or similar, it's rather silly to accuse the victiom of naivety in travelling alone in the United States. Stabbed 29 times. Doesn't Arizona have a death penalty?
taikan at 02:01 AM JST - 21st June

OssanULTRA -- The death penalty is applicable only to first-degree murder. As the article plainly states, he pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder, and thus the judge could not sentence him to death. One can only assume the prosecutor decided to accept the lesser plea because there were no witnesses to the crime, and therefore the prosecution could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt the elements necessary to obtain a death sentence. This is evident from the fact that the initial charges included kidnapping, but the story says she was "lured" from the path. That is a strong indication that there was no witness to contradict the guilty party's story about how the crime occurred. And, no doubt, the guilty party's story was designed to avoid conviction for first-degree murder.
Molenir at 04:40 AM JST - 21st June

Just so you know, the Havasupai Indian reservation is not how you normally think of the Grand Canyon. Its actually an offshoot of it, with several really pretty waterfalls and a small river that eventually drains into the Colorado. The initial hike is a series of torturous switchbacks, that last for about a mile. Followed by about a 9 mile hike to a tiny town/trading post. Once you get past the initial 1 mile climb down into the actual canyon, the trail in is mostly level with no real cliffs. While Mooney Falls is a bit of a climb, its probably the only real cliff in the area, though there are some fun places to climb.

Going by the guys name, he was probably a member of the local Supai Indian tribe. If you've ever been there, you see them working on the trail all the time. Having one offer to show you a waterfall not on the main path isn't that much of a stretch, particularly if you aren't familiar with the area. Regardless, is a really sad story. He deserves death, but at least he'll rot in Jail hopefully for the rest of his life.
pizzaboy at 09:54 AM JST - 21st June

Actually there are quite a few women of various nationalities who travel to foreign lands alone

the fact that more than one women does it means it's ok is a "rather silly" notion.

it's rather silly to accuse the victiom of naivety in travelling alone in the United States

really now, are you saying that certain places aren't more dangerous than others for foreign women (or any women for that matter) to be all by themselves? Or that it's ok for women to be off galavanting anywhere they please and there is no possibility for them to run into a mentally disturbed person when there's no one around to offer help? Would you let your mother/sister/daughter do that trip on her own?
Seems like this women isn't the only naive person out there.

Like Molenir stated with his fantastic description, this area is def'y out there. Sounds like some places are quite dangerous as far as the risk of physical danger is concernd. This person was def'y not smart to go there alone.
Molenir at 01:07 PM JST - 21st June

Actually you are generally pretty safe alone there. They have a lot of traffic. Last time I was there, it seemed like there was always someone going by in one direction or another. Tourism is pretty much the tribes main source of income. Stuff like this really kills them. Not only in tourism revenue, but this is a really small tribe. Everyone knows everyone else. So finding out that one of them is a killer...

My reading of this, is this was some sick individual. I really don't think its a matter of traveling alone, but rather a matter of him finding a victim who happened to be alone at the moment, and taking advantage of it. Could have happened to anyone, this gal was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and trusted that the tribal guy, would be, like all the other tribal guys, friendly to the tourists. Unfortunately for her, he wasn't.
pizzaboy at 07:24 PM JST - 21st June

cool, thx for the additional insight molenir :)
superesonator at 11:22 AM JST - 23rd June

"He should have gotten death"

Sure. He's a non-Japanese killing a Japanese. When a Japanese kills, chops up, eats a Westerner, of course, he should be acquitted and made a celebrity.