The Tokyo District Court sentenced a man with slight mental disability to life imprisonment Friday for stabbing a college student to death in 2001 after trying to sexually assault her.
Makoto Yamaguchi, a construction worker from Sapporo, stabbed Mayuko Ogawa, 19, in the chest and abdomen with a kitchen knife on a street in Tokyo's Taito Ward on April 30, 2001, the court said.
The case captured the public's attention due to an unusual hat that was found at the crime scene. The hat, shaped like the head of a lesser panda, helped lead police to Yamaguchi.