The Yokohama District Court sentenced a former part-time worker at a transportation firm to life in prison Monday for raping, robbing and killing a junior college student in 1998.
Judge Masaoki Iwadare said Manabu Itagaki's crime was "heinous and cruel."
According to the court, Itagaki attacked Akiko Miyakawa, 18, from behind and raped her in a field in a residential area of Yokohama's Hodogaya Ward on the night of Aug. 14, 1998. He strangled her with a towel, stole her handbag, which contained 9,000 yen in cash and a mobile phone, and left her body in the field, the court said.
Itagaki, 30, also raped and attempted to kill another woman in Yokohama's Tsurumi Ward on June 29, 1998, it said.