Life imprisonment for murder of Vietnamese woman

[NHK] After seeing the verdict, the husband said he wanted his wife to rest in peace. Last year, while working part-time at a bento shop in Osaka, I studied to become a Japanese teacher...

After witnessing the verdict, the husband asked his wife to rest in peace.

Last year, a Vietnamese woman who was studying to become a Japanese teacher while working part-time at a bento store in Osaka was murdered.

The Osaka District Court sentenced the 60-year-old defendant, who was accused of robbery and murder, to an indefinite term, saying, ``He shattered the dreams of an innocent woman with a bright future by acting selfishly in a desire for money.'' sentenced to imprisonment.

(Osaka Broadcasting Station Reporter Ryo Okumura)

The trial that kept recording for his wife

Huang Tan Yu (36), the husband whose wife was murdered, has continued to record the trial in his notebook.

He wanted to see with his own eyes what had happened and report it to her so that she could rest in peace.

lost his wife suddenly

Mr. Phan's wife, Vo Thi Le Quynh (31 at the time), is of Vietnamese nationality and came to Japan with the dream of becoming a Japanese teacher.

In order to save money for her school, she worked part-time at a bento store in Yodogawa Ward, Osaka.

However, in April last year, his body was found in a room on the second floor of a building containing a bento shop.

The unemployed defendant Toshiie Yamaguchi (60), who lived in this room, was arrested and charged with robbery and murder for seducing Vo with a false story and strangling him to death.

My dream is to be a Japanese teacher My wife who has been studying

Vo, the youngest of seven children, was born in Long An province in southern Vietnam.

He has been fond of Japan since he was a child, and he says he has been working hard on studying Japanese, hoping to visit there someday.

He majored in Japanese at a foreign language university in Ho Chi Minh City, and after graduating from university, taught basic Japanese to technical intern trainees for two years.

7 years ago, she married Hwang who works in Japan and came to Japan.

She dreamed of studying Japanese in graduate school and becoming a Japanese teacher.

It is said that she worked part-time jobs to support her living while saving money for her school fees.

It is the name of the zodiac (Uto) that Mr. Vo wrote in hiragana.

In between housework and work, I continued to study Japanese every day without fail.

Two years ago, he passed the 2nd level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

A Level 1 exam was scheduled four months after the incident.

While aiming to pass the 1st class, I was involved in an incident.

Someday, I want to build a house for my family to live in.

I want to teach Japanese language and Japanese culture to many people in Vietnam.

Vo said he had many dreams.

Husband Huang Tan Yu

"She found time and studied for three or four hours every day. She worked hard to write beautifully."

The wife who went out saying "I'm going"

However, on April 3rd of last year, that dream was suddenly taken from me.

Hwang saw off Vo, who promised to eat with him when he got home from work.

These were the last words exchanged.

Since he did not return home at the usual time, Mr. Hwang got worried and called his mobile phone and searched for the nearest station, but he could not find his whereabouts.

The next day, at the police station, I was reunited with the deceased Mr. Vo.

Memories of my husband and I going to the park to see roses and cherry blossoms.

Every day we watched music programs and cooking programs together on TV.

It wasn't a luxury, but the humble happiness that we spent supporting each other to make our dreams come true was lost.

It's been about 10 months since the incident.

When Mr. Huang comes home from work, it is his daily routine to talk to Mr. Vo about what happened that day.

Mr. Hwang:

Every day, we talk about our lives and work. After that, we eat together. It's something we've been doing for granted until now. My wife is a kind person, but why was she killed?

"Why did you kill your wife?"

What happened on the day of the incident?

Wanting to hear directly from the defendant's mouth, Huang decided to participate in the trial using the victim participation system.

Mr. Hwang:

“Why did you kill your wife? I want to know why you went upstairs with a stranger even though your wife is so cautious. I want to tell you not to worry and go to heaven with peace of mind."

Mr. Vo's older brother, Mr. Vo Thanh Trung (44), also came to Japan to participate in the trial on behalf of his Vietnamese family.

Her mother, who lives in Vietnam, lost her daughter, Vo, and says she spends her days feeling lonely and sad.

Mr. Vo's older brother Vo Thanh Chun said,

"I want to know why my beloved sister was killed for such a small amount of money. Our family lost a lot. The defendant is beyond our imagination." I did a terrible thing and I hope the sentence is justified."

Defendant ``not intended to kill'' denies robbery-murder

The trial began at the Osaka District Court on the 26th of last month.

The unemployed defendant Toshiie Yamaguchi (60), who lived in the room at the scene, lured Mr. Vo in by telling him, "Go upstairs with your valuables because the master told you to do so," and strangled him. In addition to killing him, he was charged with robbery murder and corpse abandonment for stealing about 26,000 yen in cash.

Yamaguchi denied the charge of robbery-murder, saying, "He didn't invite him with the intention of killing him or taking money."

The defense attorney said, ``The crime was not planned, and the defendant, who was in financial difficulty, tried to borrow money from someone he had never met. I thought the only option was to stun him with a stranglehold, so I killed him by mistake.”

Ms. Huang questioned the defendant through an interpreter in court.

Mr.

Hwang :

"Why did my

wife go upstairs with a stranger?"

Defendant

Yamaguchi

"I think you believed what I said."

There was no intention to take his life, and that is what happened.”

On behalf of the bereaved family, Mr. Hwang appealed to the judges and lay judges.

Ms. Hwang's opinion statement

"The defendant is a cold-blooded person who took the life of a wife who had a lot of dreams for 26,000 yen. After killing her, the wife's body was put in a futon compression bag. I think it's barbaric behavior to put it in and hide it with packing tape. Our family will never forgive it."

“Destroyed the dream of a woman with a future” sentenced to life imprisonment

In the ruling on the 3rd, presiding judge Ayako Nakagawa of the Osaka District Court said, ``From security camera footage, the defendant lured the victim into the room with the aim of stealing money and demanded money, but he loudly resisted. Therefore, it can be recognized that he continued to strangle him with murderous intent."

On top of that, she said, "She is selfish and ruthless because she wants money. I can't see any remorse for committing a serious crime."

The presiding judge told the defendant, "Please take seriously the result of your actions that shattered the dream of a woman with a bright future who has no fault at all. While praying for the victim's soul, I will serve the sentence." please.”

Mr. Huang listened to the verdict while wearing his wife's wedding ring as a necklace.

Ms. Hwang:

“I am satisfied that the defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment. I will report this to my wife when I return.

Mr. Vo's older brother, Vo Thanh Trung, said,

"It was a severe sentence. I think it helped ease the pain of the family."

I want to fulfill my wife's dream instead

Mr. Hwang, who saw the judgment, wrote "life imprisonment" in a notebook.

Ms. Phan's family in Vietnam asked her to come back to her country after the trial was over.

However, I would like to make that dream come true in Japan, where I liked Mr. Vo, who had a dream of becoming a Japanese teacher.

I am slowly starting to study Japanese with the materials and notebooks that Vo used.