Seaman answers to prosecutors

[unhappycamper]

Seaman answers to prosecutors
By Vince Little and Hana Kusumoto, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, February 25, 2009

YOKOHAMA, Japan — The prosecution finally got a crack at Navy Seaman Olatunbosun Ugbogu on Monday, trying to punch holes in his insanity defense and also laying out a possible motive for murder.

At the sailor’s robbery-homicide trial in Yokohama District Court, the two Japanese prosecutors argued he killed 61-year-old taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi last March near Yokosuka Naval Base to get out of paying a $195 cab fare.

Ugbogu, 23, a Nigerian citizen, also faced questions from his defense attorney, Yasutoshi Murakami, the three-judge panel and the court-appointed psychiatrist during another full day on the witness stand.

Dr. Taro Muramatsu will determine whether mental illness played a role in the fatal stabbing. He will present the findings from his psychiatric observation at Ugbogu’s next hearing on April 28.

Ugbogu has confessed to the killing but claims he was ordered to do it by "overpowering voices."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60938