Takayanagi Kazuya
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Man sentenced to death for killing two women
(Mainichi Japan) March 17, 2009
KOBE -- A 43-year-old man convicted of killing his girlfriend and another woman was given the death penalty on Tuesday.
The Kobe District Court's Himeji branch handed down the sentence to Kazuya Takayanagi, of Aioi, Hyogo Prefecture, for murdering and abandoning the bodies of the two 23-year-old women.
"From his statements and attitude, there is little possibility of the defendant turning over a new leaf," concluded Presiding Judge Joji Igarashi.
According to the ruling, on Jan. 9, 2005, Takayanagi killed his girlfriend, Himeji resident Mika Hatafuji, by beating her to death with a hammer over an argument about money at his home in Aioi. He then killed her friend Yoshimi Tanigawa, a student from Osaka's Nishi Ward, who witnessed the murder. He left the dismembered bodies around Shikama Port in Himeji, and in the mountains near the town of Kamigori.
Lawyers acknowledged murderous intent in the killing of Tanigawa, but insisted that the Hatafuji case should be treated as bodily injury resulting in death, saying that she attacked him with a razor first. The presiding judge, however, rejected their argument.
"The defendant beat her several times, and there was obvious intent to kill her," he ruled. Lawyers plan to file an appeal.
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