NIIGATA – A man filed an appeal Wednesday after he was handed a life sentence earlier this month for the 2018 murder of a 7-year-old girl in the city of Niigata, his lawyer said.
The defense team for Haruka Kobayashi, 25, had requested a sentence with a maximum 10 years in prison during a trial at the Niigata District Court, claiming that he had no intention of killing or molesting the girl, while suggesting he may have been mentally ill at the time.
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