IBARAKI (TR) – The Mito District Court Wednesday sentenced a 29-year-old man to 20 years in prison for the brutal hammer murder of a pregnant woman whom he stalked by hiding a tracking device inside a stuffed animal.
Takumi Ouchi was handed the sentence for the murder of Haruka Komatsumoto, a 31-year-old nail technician who was five months pregnant when she was killed inside her apartment in Mito City on New Year’s Eve last year.
Skull fractures
According to the court, Ouchi located Komatsumoto’s residence by sending her a stuffed toy of a popular character, falsely claiming it was a campaign giveaway prize. Inside the toy, he had planted a tracking device.
After pinpointing her address, Ouchi disguised himself as a delivery worker to gain entry to her apartment and bludgeoned her with a hammer.
Komatsumoto’s husband discovered his wife bleeding and collapsed in the entryway upon returning home from work, just five hours before the start of the new year.
The victim suffered three severe skull fractures, with the trauma heavily concentrated on her head. The court noted that multiple defensive wounds were found on her body, suggesting a desperate struggle as she attempted to protect her unborn child.
“I cannot accept this”
In handing down the 20-year sentence, the presiding judge condemned the unprovoked attack. “The victim’s despair at being forced to end her life due to sudden, unreasonable brutality while pregnant is immeasurable, and the family’s sense of loss and grief is beyond comprehension,” the judge said.
Ouchi stared straight ahead at the judge as the verdict was read.
Following the ruling, the victim’s grieving husband held a press conference, expressing profound anger and dissatisfaction with the sentence.
“Honestly, I can only think that two lives were taken from me, so I question the legal view that the child in her womb is merely considered ‘a part of the mother,'” he told reporters. “I have nothing but anger toward everything.”
He added that Ouchi showed no remorse toward the family during the proceedings. “Not once did he look our way to apologize. I cannot accept this,” the husband said.
