A 66-year-old man on Tuesday was found guilty and sentenced to 27 years in prison for killing three members of his family and then setting their house on fire in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, in 2014.
The Nagoya District Court in Okazaki handed the sentence down against Yoshiharu Matsui, Fuji TV reported. A panel of professional and lay judges handed down the ruling.
The court heard that Matsui woke up his neighbor at around 4:30 a.m. on May 25, 2014, and asked him to call 119 because his house was on fire. He then disappeared.
The fire destroyed the two-story wooden house and a building nextdoor before it was extinguished four hours later. The remains of three people were found in the ruins. They were identified as Matsui’s wife Ayako, 65, his daughter Rie, 37, and mother-in-law Kiyoko, 89.
Police found Matsui with two knives in a car in the parking lot of a shop in the neighboring city of Okazaki at around 7 a.m. the same day and arrested him on suspicion of violating the Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law. He also had a letter on him, alluding to his involvement in killing his three family members, police said.
Upon further questioning, Matsui – who was living apart from his family – confessed to strangling all three with a cord as they slept.
At the time, local media reported that police had been contacted twice by Matsui in the two months preceding the crime concerning a financial dispute triggered by Ayako giving more than 80 million yen to a female friend over a 15-year period. That woman has since been arrested for fraud, Fuji TV reported.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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sensei258
Only 27 years for killing three people? I wonder if he would get the same sentence if he was younger, or gaijin
sensei258
Only 27 years?
nath
So... 9 a piece! Not bad!
Aly Rustom
Its enough. He'll most likely die in prison. If he does get out he'll probably be too old to remember what he did anyway. He's pushing 70 and this is almost a 30 year prison sentence.
nakanoguy01
Aly RustomMar. 23, 2016 - 08:56AM JST Its enough. He'll most likely die in prison. If he does get out he'll probably be too old to remember what he did anyway. He's pushing 70 and this is almost a 30 year prison sentence.
yes, but while he's living in prison, our tax dollars are being used to keep this sick bastard alive. hang him and let's not waste another yen on his pathetic life.
nath
Nakanoguy.
If you are worried about your tax dollars, than it is best to abolish the Death Penalty as many countries have and many US States.
Google and compare the cost of keeping a person on Death Row vs General Population.
Peter Qinghai
The cost of a single bullet id much cheaper...
Magnus Roe
You could google it, but it would be useless as all the numbers are on the US prison system, which is hugely inflated and tailored to privatization and outsourcing like everything else over there. There are no numbers available comparing the costs incurred by storing Japanese inmates vs hanging them. Likely it makes more sense to keep them around though, as they are used for work.
sado001
27 years for 3 people? That should be 3 life sentences or the death penalty for that gruesome murder..
Yeah if he gets 27 years in jail he will die in the jail anyways, but still, what if this was a man in his 20's or 30's then even if he kills 3 people he will be free at his 50's.. What a stupid decision..
602miko
Very light sentence, but then 66 + 27 = 93 ... his old enough to regrets everything dieying alone.
Patrick Hagger
27 years of hard labor Japanese style justice not the Western style sleep in elder care system of most Western countries.