The victim’s sister started crying in court… “This is a false accusation,” said the defendant in court in the case of the strangulation of a 27-year-old woman in Kumagaya.

I did not assault Mr. Miyazaki nor did I cause his death. This is a false accusation.

In September 2009, the body of Hidemi Miyazaki, then 27, was found in her apartment in Kumagaya City. On October 21, a month and a half after the body was found, Ken Tomita (Suguru), 33, a temporary worker living in Higashimurayama City, Tokyo, who was said to have met the victim on SNS, was arrested.

A jury trial in this case has been held at the Saitama District Court since February 20.

Tomita, who is accused of causing Mr. Miyazaki’s death by strangling him to death, denied the charges at his first trial, as stated at the beginning of this report.

During questioning of the defendant on February 24, Tomita, with his shoulder-length hair tied back like a chonmage, sat at the defendant’s table and slowly began to tell the story of his encounter with the victim.

Tomita and Ms. Miyazaki met in June of 2009.

I met Ms. Miyazaki while sending random messages on a SNS application called “KoeTomo” looking for someone I could casually hang out with,” he said.

After communicating on LINE several times, they went to Ms. Miyazaki’s home to hang out, take walks in the park, and drink together. On September 3, the day of the alleged incident, Tomita drove to Ms. Miyazaki’s apartment in a rental car he rented near her house. It was the third time he met Ms. Miyazaki.

As we were smoking and talking in the room, Mr. Miyazaki, who was sitting on a futon mattress, suddenly began to make strange noises. He was sitting on the futon and suddenly started making strange noises, like ‘gah’ and ‘guah. I had no idea what it meant, and I was scared. I asked her, “Are you okay? but there was no response at all. Eventually, she pressed her face against the futon and began to cry.

At that moment, the intercom rang. Ms. Miyazaki sometimes became mentally unstable, and a visiting nurse regularly came to check on her. That day was the day of the home-visit nurse.

“From outside the door, she said, ‘Are you all right? ‘ ‘You’re not feeling well, are you?’ I heard a voice saying, ‘You’re not feeling well, are you? I asked Mr. Miyazaki, ‘Don’t you have to answer the door?’ but there was no response, so I decided to ignore (the visiting nurse). I wanted her to give up and go home as soon as possible. (In response to the question, “Did you have any choice but to have the visiting nurse see her? She is not my best friend, and I don’t care about her that much” (defendant Tomita).

Tomita looked through the door scope and confirmed that the visiting nurse had left.

I waited for a while after that, but she didn’t seem to be recovering at all, so I decided to leave. When I left the house, Mr. Miyazaki was indeed alive (after leaving the house) I decided to stop associating with him and deleted my LINE account. Perhaps because I had originally spread the LINE QR code to ‘KoeTomo,’ I often received messages from people I did not know, and I was thinking of deleting it soon,” (defendant Tomita).

On the day he returned home, the investigation revealed that Tomita had searched the Internet for “Kumagaya news.

In response to the defense attorney’s question, “Why did you do such a search?” to a question by his defense counsel, “I had heard that Mr. Miyazaki had attempted suicide before, so I was worried that he might have committed suicide.

Defendant Tomita claimed that he learned of Mr. Miyazaki’s death from the news.
As to why he continued to access the continuing news of “Mr. Miyazaki’s murder” after that, he said, “I was interested in the development of the case because someone I knew had died. And I thought that if the murderer was not arrested, the police would eventually come to my place to ask about the situation,” he said.

On October 6, 2009, around 6:00 a.m., Tomita was taken into custody by investigators on his way to work, and was arrested.

During the interrogation at the Tokorozawa police station, Tomita gave statements that differed from his testimony at trial : “I just found out that Mr. Miyazaki was murdered,” and “On September 3, when I left Mr. Miyazaki’s house, he saw me off from the living room and said, ‘Bye.

As to the reason for the discrepancy between his interrogation and his testimony, Tomita said, “I was so shocked that I was suddenly treated as a suspect that my mind went blank. I became desperate, thinking that there was nothing I could say that would make a difference.

Tomita answered the defense attorney’s questions clearly. However, as the trial progressed and the prosecutor began asking questions, his demeanor changed drastically.

He remained silent and did not respond to the prosecutor’s questions. When the prosecutor, growing impatient, asked, “Do you hear me?” the prosecutor replied, “I will remain silent. I have no intention of answering the prosecutor’s questions. I have no reason.” “Can’t you continue [asking questions] unless I answer?” I have no reason to answer the prosecutor’s questions.

Perhaps shocked by Tomita’s attitude, the court was temporarily adjourned when the cries of Miyazaki’s sister, “Woo, woo,” echoed from behind an impulse stand.
After that, Tomita answered the questions of the judges and the judge, but did not answer any of the prosecutor’s questions.

At the trial held on March 2, the prosecution pointed out that DNA that appeared to be a mixture of Ms. Miyazaki’s and Mr. Tomita’s DNA was found on the collar of Ms. Miyazaki’s pajamas, that Mr. Tomita deleted his LINE account after the incident, and that he took the long way around on his way home when he could have just gone straight home, actions that only a criminal would take. He also pointed out that after the incident, he deleted his LINE account and took the long way around on his way home when he should have gone straight. He also pointed out that “the manner in which he continued to strangle the victim until he suffocated to death was dangerous and malicious. He made irrational statements and showed no remorse.

The defense, on the other hand, argued that a third party’s DNA, which did not belong to Mr. Miyazaki, was found on the collar of his pajamas, and that the strangulation was not the only occasion when Mr. Tomita’s DNA was attached to his neck. He added, “There is no evidence. There is no motive. There is even a possibility that there are other culprits. It is impossible. He is not guilty.

After the closing argument, Tomita exhaled heavily and went to the defendant’s seat.

In his closing statement, he said that he refused to answer the prosecutor’s questions because “I couldn’t stand to be questioned further by someone who had cast false suspicion on me,” and concluded by saying , “It wasn’t honorable, but I want my life back, where I was naturally free.

Although there have been changes in his statements, Tomita has continued to plead not guilty from the time of his arrest. Will Tomita’s claim be accepted? The verdict will be handed down on March 10.