The verdict in the trial of a Saitama Prefecture moneylender accused of conspiring to murder two people for insurance and trying to kill another will be handed down Oct. 1, the Saitama District Court has announced.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Shigeru Yagi, 52, of Honjo, Saitama Prefecture, but he maintains that he never contemplated or ordered any killings.
"I had hoped they would die soon because I had taken out insurance on them, but I never thought about killing them or gave instructions for them to be killed," Yagi testified. "I swear I'm telling the truth."
One of Yagi's lawyers said, "One of the dead drowned, and was not poisoned with aconite. The other died after consuming too much alcohol."