https://japantoday.com/category/crime/defendant-in-sagamihara-murder-case-acquitted

June 2, 2019

YOKOHAMA
The Yokohama District Court has acquitted a 41-year-old man accused of killing a 60-year-old man on the street in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2017.

The defendant, Akihito Oishi, was indicted for murder after he was charged with fatally stabbing Takayuki Matsuoka multiple times at around 11:30 p.m. on Dec 12, 2017, near his home in Minami Ward.

An eyewitness told police that Matsuoka was involved in a scuffle with another man, who began wielding a knife. After stabbing Matsuoka, the assailant ran to a bicycle and rode away in the direction of Zama.

Police said Oishi surfaced as a suspect after they examined street surveillance camera footage, which showed someone who resembled him riding bike to and from the scene of the crime at around the time it happened. He also fit the description of the man seen by the witness.

However, Oishi denied the charge.

During the trial, prosecutors claimed that Oishi was “obviously the criminal” because his glasses were found at the crime scene and his bicycle with blood matching the victim’s was found in his apartment’s bicycle parking lot, Sankei Shimbun reported.

According to the court ruling, handed down on Friday, the presiding judge said that finding Oishi’s glasses at the crime scene doesn’t mean he dropped them when Matsuoka was killed. Oishi had told police he didn't remember where he lost his glasses and that he had not used his bike that night.

The court agreed that there was not enough evidence to prove that Oishi did, in fact, use the bicycle on the night of the murder.
© Japan Today


相模原 男性殺人事件、４１歳被告に無罪判決

　おととし１２月、神奈川県相模原市の路上で、面識のない男性（当時６０）を刃物で刺し殺害したとして、殺人の罪に問われた被告の裁判で、横浜地裁は無罪を言い渡しました。
　大石明彦被告（４１）はおととし１２月、相模原市南区の路上で、近くに住む会社員の松岡隆行さん（６０）の胸や腹などを刃物で複数回刺して殺害したとして起訴されました。これまでの裁判で検察側は、大石被告のメガネなどが現場に落ちていたことや、大石被告の自転車ではないものの、自宅アパートの駐輪場に松岡さんの血がついた自転車があったことなどから「犯人なのは明らか」として、懲役１８年を求刑していました。

　３１日の判決で、横浜地裁は「大石被告がメガネを落としたのが事件の際だったとは言いきれない」ことや「大石被告が本件の自転車を使用した可能性が比較的高いとは言えない」などの理由で、無罪を言い渡しました。