OSAKA (TR) – The Osaka District Court on Wednesday handed a 61-year-old man a prison term for starting a fire in an apartment building in Osaka City that killed a female resident two years ago, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 26).
Presiding Judge Yoichi Suehiro handed Nobuyoshi Niida an 11-year prison term for arson in an occupied structure and negligent death.
“It was a dangerous and heinous crime,” judge Suehiro said.
According to the verdict, the defendant twice threw burning pieces of paper through the window of the first-floor unit of a two-story structure in Nishinari Ward in the early morning of June 9, 2024.
The subsequent blaze burned down four of the nine units in the structure. A 48-year-old woman living on the second floor died from acute carbon monoxide poisoning.
Police arrested Niida two days after the fire based on an examination of security camera footage that showed him slinging objects through the window.
At the time of his arrest on suspicion of arson in occupied building and murder, Niida denied the allegations. He said, “I have absolutely no recollection of this.”
However, he admitted to the lesser charges during the trial. The prosecution had sought a 12-year term.
Niida explained to the court that his motive for setting the fire was that he had feelings for a female resident living in apartment different from the deceased woman. His plan was to rescue her from the fire he had stage.
“I was just trying to get closer to her,” Niida said. “The fire was bigger than I had anticipated and I couldn’t handle it.”
The woman he had feelings for was out at the time of the arson and was not injured.
In staring his reasoning for the verdict, judge Suehiro described the motive of Niida as “childish and shallow.” He went on, “There is no room for excuses. I can only imagine the regret of the innocent victim.”
