The Yokohama District Court on Friday sentenced Mai Nishitaka, 33, to 17 years in prison for killing her ex-partner, whose body was found in a suitcase by the Tama River near Tokyo in December 2023.
According to the ruling, Nishitaka and four other people, including her family and boyfriend, conspired to give her ex-boyfriend, Tadayuki Hara, then 46, a drink laced with sleeping pills at an apartment in Tokyo's Ota Ward on Dec. 15 in 2023. They then strangled him and abandoned the body in a suitcase by the Tama River in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.
The four were also arrested and indicted, on charges of killing Hara and abandoning the remains.
While the prosecutor demanded 19 years in prison for Nishitaka, the defense argued that her mother, Miho, 53, was the mastermind, and that her daughter could not resist her influence.
Judge Takao Sato said, however, Nishitaka "took a leading role" among the accomplices. Although Miho had a strong impact on her daughter's upbringing, "we cannot conclude there was a master-servant relationship," the judge said, ruling that Nishitaka "ultimately chose on her own to kill the victim."
The scheme was "not sophisticated, but malicious, and carried a high degree of certainty," Sato added.
Nishitaka's father, Masahiro, 54, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in July but has appealed, while Nishitaka's boyfriend, Shuhei Iwaki, was given 15 years. Her brother, Shogo, 35, is scheduled to face the first hearing of his trial on Wednesday.
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