The Osaka District Court on Wednesday sentenced a 46-year-old man to death after a lay judge trial convicted him in the 2004 slaying of an elderly couple in the victims' home.
Ex-construction worker Katsuaki Suzuki had pleaded not guilty, but the panel of three professional and six lay judges ruled there was no denying he was the culprit.
Suzuki used a blunt object to kill business owner Kenji Asai, 74, and his wife, Kiyo, 73, at their home in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, on Dec. 3, 2004, and then stole a luxury watch and the couple's car, the court said, adding he later sold the watch to a pawn shop.