Ex-Wife Ruled Not Guilty over Death of "Don Juan of Kishu"

Wakayama, Dec. 12 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese district court on Thursday ruled a 28-year-old woman not guilty of murdering in 2018 her then husband, a wealthy businessman nicknamed the "Don Juan of Kishu."

Judge Keiko Fukushima, who presided over the lay-judge trial at Wakayama District Court, rejected the prosecution's demand of an indefinite prison term for Saki Sudo.

According to the indictment, Sudo allegedly killed the then husband, Kosuke Nozaki, 77, on May 24, 2018, by making him take a lethal dose of a stimulant drug at their home in the city of Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, and causing acute drug poisoning. Kishu is the old name for the region that includes Wakayama.

Amid the absence of direct evidence linking the defendant to the death of Nozaki, the high-profile court battle had revolved around whether the victim was indeed murdered and whether Sudo was the perpetrator.

Prosecutors had claimed that the defendant married Nozaki for money and that she killed him to inherit a massive fortune. They said that the defendant had searched phrases such as "elderly death" and "perfect crime" on the internet.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]