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A former U.S. military base employee was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for the rape and murder of a local woman on the southern island of Okinawa, according to local media.
The case has intensified longstanding local opposition to the American military presence on the strategic island, which reluctantly hosts nearly 75 percent of land allotted for U.S. bases in Japan even though it accounts for just a fraction of the country's total area.
Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 33-year-old former U.S. Marine employed at the U.S. Air Force's sprawling Kadena Air Base, was arrested last year for disposing of the body of the victim and was later charged for murder and sexual assault leading to death.
Shinzato in November denied intending to kill the woman, identified as Rina Shimabukuro, but confessed that he had sexually assaulted her.
Prosecutors told the Naha District Court in Okinawa that the accused choked Shimabukuro with his hands and stabbed her in the neck during the attack on a road in Uruma at around 10 p.m. on April 28, 2016. He also hit her in the head with a bar.
Ex-U.S. base worker gets life for killing Okinawan woman
He didn't intend to kill her which explains the knife and the bar.
The case has intensified longstanding local opposition to the American military presence on the strategic island, which reluctantly hosts nearly 75 percent of land allotted for U.S. bases in Japan even though it accounts for just a fraction of the country's total area.
Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 33-year-old former U.S. Marine employed at the U.S. Air Force's sprawling Kadena Air Base, was arrested last year for disposing of the body of the victim and was later charged for murder and sexual assault leading to death.
Shinzato in November denied intending to kill the woman, identified as Rina Shimabukuro, but confessed that he had sexually assaulted her.
Prosecutors told the Naha District Court in Okinawa that the accused choked Shimabukuro with his hands and stabbed her in the neck during the attack on a road in Uruma at around 10 p.m. on April 28, 2016. He also hit her in the head with a bar.
Ex-U.S. base worker gets life for killing Okinawan woman
He didn't intend to kill her which explains the knife and the bar.
