A repeat sex offender was sentenced to death Tuesday for the kidnap-murder of a 7-year-old girl in 2004 in a gruesome case in which he used the victim's cell phone to send her mother a photo of the corpse and to threaten to kill the girl's sister.
Calling Kaoru Kobayashi's actions "coldblooded and vicious," presiding Judge Tetsuya Okuda of the Nara District Court ruled he committed all eight criminal counts against him and said, "There are no extenuating circumstances."
Prosecutors sought the gallows for the 37-year-old newspaper deliveryman over the murder of Kaede Ariyama of Nara Prefecture, saying he cannot be rehabilitated.