TOKYO (TR) — The Supreme Court has finalized a 30-year prison sentence for a 26-year-old former police officer over the brutal hammer killings of three family members at their home in Shizuoka Prefecture, reports TBS News (Apr. 10).
On April 10, the Second Petty Bench of the Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Mamoru Miura, rejected an appeal filed by the defense for Yutaro Yamada, upholding the rulings of two lower courts.
According to the rulings, Yamada fatally bludgeoned his 79-year-old grandfather, his 76-year-old grandmother, and his 26-year-old older brother with a hammer at their residence in Hamamatsu City on March 8, 2022.
During the trial, the defense argued that Yamada was suffering from diminished capacity. They claimed that the murders were actually carried out by an “alternate personality” that had manifested as a result of severe childhood abuse.
While the Shizuoka District Court’s Hamamatsu Branch acknowledged that Yamada’s ability to control his actions was lowered by a separate personality, it ultimately ruled that he bore full criminal responsibility due to the deliberate continuity of his actions before and after the attacks.
Prosecutors had originally sought a sentence of life imprisonment. However, the lower courts opted for a 30-year term, noting that the horrific abuse Yamada suffered during his upbringing left room for sympathy. The Tokyo High Court later supported this decision.
With the top court’s latest decision to dismiss the final appeal, Yamada’s 30-year sentence becomes final.
