The Aomori District Court on Wednesday sentenced a former taxi driver to death for setting fire to a branch office of major consumer credit firm Takefuji Corp. and killing five employees during an attempted robbery.
Although he pleaded guilty to the charges, Mitsuhiro Kobayashi, 44, denied he intended to murder the five when he set fire to the branch in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. Four other staff members suffered serious burns.
But prosecutors, who had demanded the death penalty, argued that Kobayashi had a firm intent to kill as he was aware that igniting the gasoline he had poured on the floor could endanger or kill employees.