The Naha Family Court said Friday that it has sent the case of a 19-year-old American arrested on suspicion of car theft and damaging a building in December back to the Naha District Public Prosecutor's Office.
Judge Hiroaki Saito decided that because the suspect had acted as a leader in a violent incident, it is appropriate for him to be tried in a criminal court.
According to the family court, the suspect, son of a senior U.S. Marine stationed at Kadena Air Base, acted as the ringleader in the car theft, in which the vehicle was subsequently rammed into a clothing shop in Nago after conspiring with a 17-year-old high school student and a 19-year-old college student, both American.
In late January, the boy and the college student also set fire to three cars in the town of Sashiki.