A man suspected of stalking and killing a woman in Fukuoka pleaded not guilty to stalking charges during an initial hearing in Fukuoka District Court on Monday.
During the first hearing of the lay judge trial at the court, the 32-year-old suspect, Susumu Terauchi, admitted the charge that he stabbed his former girlfriend Miki Kawano, then 32, to death on a street near JR Hakata Station in January last year. year.
But he denied lying in wait. His lawyer claimed that Terauchi is not guilty of stalking because he had no grudge against Kawano.
On the other hand, prosecutors pointed out that Terauchi repeatedly called the victim after she broke off the relationship with him, prompting Fukuoka Prefecture police to issue a banning order against him under the Anti-Stalking Law.
Prosecutors also said he waited for Kawano to emerge from her workplace and followed her for more than 100 yards before stabbing her 17 times with a cooking knife.
The defense, in turn, argued that Terauchi happened to be walking near her workplace to pay a cell phone bill, and denied that the murder was premeditated.
The indictment stated that Terauchi lurked and stalked Kawauchi on her way home from work in January 2023 and that on the evening of January 16, he stabbed her multiple times in the chest and other areas on the street in the neighborhood Hakata of the city. which led to her death from blood loss.
In a separate case, the court has already found him guilty of attacking and seriously injuring a man on the street in the same neighborhood.
If Terauchi is found guilty in the stalking and murder trial, the court will determine a sentence, which will also take into account the assault incident.
