Sailor tells Japanese court he stabbed 2 women

[unhappycamper]

Sailor tells Japanese court he stabbed 2 women
Kyodo News Service
Posted : Sunday Mar 30, 2008 10:43:17 EDT

YOKOHAMA, Japan — A 20-year-old U.S. sailor accused of attempted murder admitted Thursday to stabbing a Japanese girl and a Japanese woman last July in Yokosuka, but denied an intention to kill them.

The sailor who, at age 19, was a minor under Japanese law at the time of the crime, entered the plea in the first hearing of his trial at the Yokohama District Court’s Yokosuka branch.

The sailor is a crew member on a U.S. frigate that is home-ported at the Navy’s Yokosuka base.

A Japanese prosecutor, delivering a statement detailing the background and outline of the crime, said the sailor was under accumulated stress out of his naval mission, treated coolly by the two victims and lost his temper.

“The defendant thought it does not matter if the victims are dead when he stabbed them,” the prosecutor said.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/03/kyo_sailorstab_032708/