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Mabuchi Motor murderer drops appeal of death sentence
Tuesday,
November 6, 2007
TOKYO — A man convicted in the killings of four people,
including the wife and daughter of the chairman of Mabuchi Motor Co.,
and who was appealing the death sentence he received in March has
dropped the appeal and thus became a death row inmate, his lawyer said
Monday.
According to the lawyer, 64-year-old Tetsuo Odajima wrote
a letter to the lawyer last Thursday in which he said, "I have no means
to apologize for the victims. I can only pay for my crimes with my own
life. I deeply reflect on everything in my life." (Kyodo News)
Serial killer handed death penalty
March 22,
2007
A man on trial over four killings including the
double murder of a company president's wife and daughter was handed
the death penalty Thursday in a ruling at the Chiba District Court.
Sentenced to death for robbery and murder was Tetsuo
Odajima, 63. In handing down the death penalty, Presiding Judge Wataru
Nemoto branded Odajima's actions as hard-hearted and cruel.
"It was ruthless, hard-hearted and cruel. They were
crimes in which the defendant failed to show the slightest bit of
humanity," Nemoto said.
According to the ruling, Odajima conspired with
Katsumi Morita, 56, to break into the home of Mabuchi Motor Co.
President Takaichi Mabuchi in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, on Aug. 5,
2002. After entering the home the pair strangled Mabuchi's 66-year-old
wife Etsuko and their 40-year-old daughter Yuka, the court heard.
Afterwards, the men allegedly stole several hundred
thousand yen in cash from the home, along with 10 jewelry items with a
combined value of about 9.7 million yen, and set fire to the home before
fleeing.
On Sept. 24 that year, the pair murdered 71-year-old
dentist Fumio Aoyagi at his home in Tokyo's Meguro-ku, and stole about
350,000 yen in cash from him, the ruling said.
Later, on Nov. 21 the same year, they stormed into
the home of 65-year-old Kimie Oshima in Abiko, Chiba Prefecture,
murdered her and stole 1 million yen in cash, according to the ruling.
Morita has already been handed the death penalty over
the crimes, and has filed an appeal against his sentence.
Codefendant also sentenced to hang for 2002 Mabuchi robbery-murders
Friday, March 23, 2007
CHIBA (Kyodo) The Chiba District Court sentenced a second man to death
Thursday for the murders of the wife and daughter of the chairman of
Mabuchi Motor Co. and two others in 2002, following the same verdict
handed to his codefendant in December.
Presiding Judge Wataru Nemoto found Tetsuo Odajima, 63, guilty of all
counts of murder, robbery, arson and trespassing involving the three
separate robbery-murder cases.
On Dec. 19, Odajima's accomplice, Katsumi Morita, 56, was also sentenced
to hang by the same court. He has appealed the sentence to the Tokyo
High Court.
While pleading guilty, Odajima had sought leniency.
Prosecutors had demanded the gallows.
Odajima and Morita conspired to break into the home of then Mabuchi
Motor President Takaichi Mabuchi in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, on Aug.
5, 2002, and strangled Mabuchi's wife, Etsuko, 66, and daughter, Yuka,
40, before stealing hundreds of thousands of yen in cash and jewelry
worth about 9.7 million yen and setting fire to the house, the court
said.
Odajima also conspired with Morita in the killing of dentist Fumio
Aoyagi, 71, in Tokyo on Sept. 24, 2002, and Kimie Oshima, 65, wife of a
discount-ticket shop owner in Chiba Prefecture on Nov. 21 the same year
for money and jewelry, according to the court.
