Naha, Okinawa Pref., Oct. 25 (Jiji Press)–Public prosecutors in Okinawa Prefecture indicted U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, on robbery and murder charges on Sunday after a 39-year-old woman was found dead in the southwestern Japan prefecture earlier this month. According to the indictment and other sources, Ballard allegedly strangled the woman with a telephone cord in a hotel room in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, approximately between 2:10 a.m. and 4:15 a.m. on Oct. 3 and took a backpack containing her wallet and other belongings. The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office has not disclosed whether Ballard, who is stationed at the Marine Corps’ Futenma air base in the city of Ginowan, Okinawa, has admitted to the charges. Investigative sources said that the woman checked in with a man at the hotel around 2:10 a.m. that day but she did not leave by checkout time. Around 4:15 a.m., a hotel employee entered the room and found her body. Security camera footage showed a man with a backpack and features similar to Ballard’s, including tattoos on both arms, leaving the hotel. The backpack was found near the hotel. Okinawa prefectural police found Ballard walking on a street in the city of Okinawa around 11:30 a.m. the same day and arrested him on suspicion of robbery and murder. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
