I didn’t kill him.” Saki Sudo, the defendant in the Don Juan case in Kishu, now.

FRIDAY’s Confident Attitude

About a 20-minute walk from Wakayama Station on the Kiseisen Line, the Marunouchi Detention Center is located in a residential area lined with elegant single-family homes. The windows are blindfolded with metal nets, so it is impossible to see what is going on inside, but Saki Sudo, 25, is here now, awaiting her trial date.

On May 24, 2006, Kosuke Nozaki (77), a wealthy man known as “Don Juan of Kishu,” died mysteriously in a bedroom on the second floor of his home in Tanabe City. The cause of death was acute methamphetamine poisoning. The case made a big splash, but Saki was not arrested until April 28, 2009, about three years after her husband’s death.

The police decided to arrest her because she and her nanny were the only ones in the house on the day of the incident, and she had been looking up methamphetamine on her smartphone before the incident. However, all of this is only circumstantial evidence. There is no indication of when the trial will start, but it is certain to take a long time,” said a reporter from a national newspaper.

In late December 2009, this magazine visited the defendant at the detention center, but was not able to meet him because of the “no access” policy. We also interviewed a lawyer’s office in Wakayama City, which is said to represent Hayaki.

We also contacted the lawyer’s office in Wakayama City, which is said to be representing the defendant, but they replied, “We would like to refrain from answering whether he is working as a lawyer or not.

I’m not going to tell you if I have a lawyer.

If the defendant is to be falsely accused, it is usual for his lawyer to hold a press conference or some other means of disseminating information, but there has been no such move. It seems that no appeal has been filed against his prolonged detention at the jail. Is he planning to make a grand statement at the trial, or has he not reached an agreement with his lawyer? It is not clear why Saki has remained silent, but one thing is for sure: she continues to insist on her “innocence.

Since her arrest, the police and the prosecutor’s office have not released any information about her guilt or innocence. However, according to investigators, there is no doubt that she is denying her involvement in the case. It has been eight months since her arrest, but we have not received any information that her testimony has changed.

In fact, Saki has consistently maintained his innocence when interviewed by FRIDAY. In an interview conducted about two weeks after the incident, he said

I first met the president [Mr. Nozaki] at the end of 2005. I was introduced by an acquaintance. The president told me that he would pay me one million yen a month if I married him, and he did. To be honest, I thought, ‘This is a good deal,’ so I got married. How could I kill him if I won’t be getting one million yen a month?”

There was no sign of agitation on his face.

After the incident, Saki returned to Tokyo and asked a reporter from this magazine to take her to and from a nail salon and a beauty salon in order to avoid being followed by the media. In the car, this reporter would often say.

“Are you sure you’re not the culprit?”

She would sometimes laugh and say, “No, I didn’t.

I didn’t have sex with him.

She sometimes laughed and replied, “No, I didn’t. It is unthinkable that Saki would confess to everything now.

I didn’t kill him. I didn’t kill her…” Saki will probably assert this at her upcoming trial. The main points of contention in the trial will be the route by which the methamphetamine was obtained and the method by which it was given to Mr. Nozaki, but unless the police have a “hidden gem” that can be used as direct evidence, it will take more time before a verdict is reached.

From the January 21, 2022 issue of FRIDAY