NAGOYA (Kyodo) The Nagoya District Court sentenced a 41-year-old woman Friday to life in prison for fatally stabbing a woman and injuring another in random street assaults in Nagoya in 2003.
Presiding Judge Shinichiro Ito sentenced Kazuyo Ida to life imprisonment as prosecutors demanded, saying the defendant came to believe she was the only person in the world who was unhappy and "thought she could get rid of her frustrations by stabbing young, happy women."
According to the court, Ida stabbed Etsuko Sugaya, a 22-year-old nurse, with a kitchen knife in Nagoya's Kita Ward on the evening of March 30, 2003, and took a bag from a friend who was with Sugaya. Sugaya died two days later.
Ida also seriously wounded another 22-year-old woman with a knife in Chikusa Ward on April 1 and took her bag, which contained cash.
Ida's counsel said it will not appeal.