WAKAYAMA, JAPAN, SEPT 12 – A 28-year-old woman pleaded not guilty today to charges of murdering her husband, a wealthy elderly man who described himself as ‘Don Juan’ in the western part of Japan where he lived, news agencies reported. Kyodo.
According to the charges, Saki Sudo allegedly caused Kosuke Nozaki, who was 77 years old at the time of his death, to deliberately swallow a large amount of stimulant drugs on May 24, 2018.
As the president of a liquor sales company and real estate business in Wakayama Prefecture, Nozaki is said to have amassed around 1.3 billion yen (US$9.1 million) in personal wealth.
She married Sudo, who is more than 50 years her junior in February 2018.
The Wakayama District Court plans to deliver a decision on the case on December 12 this year.
Sudo was also convicted earlier this month of stealing from another man between 2015 and 2016 and faces three years and six months in prison.
Nozaki is best known for publishing an autobiography titled Don Juan of Kishu: The Man Who Gave 3 Billion Yen to 4,000 Beautiful Women in 2016, equated himself with playboy.
Kishu is the historical name of the area in the region where he lived.
Sudo said he found Nozaki collapsed in their home, according to investigative sources with the cause of death confirmed as ‘acute stimulant poisoning’, but no needle marks were found on his body.
Nozaki’s home security camera footage did not show any other individuals entering or leaving and an analysis of Sudo’s smartphone revealed he had searched for words such as ‘stimulant’ and ‘murder’ before the incident, the source said, leading to his arrest in April 2021. He charged the following month.
The focus of the trial was whether he could be convicted of murder after the prosecution decided to present a case based on circumstantial evidence. – Named
