Naha, Okinawa Pref., Oct. 27 (Jiji Press)–A U.S. Marine indicted for alleged murder-robbery in Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, has signaled his involvement in the crime during questioning by the police department of the southernmost Japan prefecture, investigative sources said. Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, had denied his role in the case when he was arrested by the police in early October. Ballard, who belongs to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air station in the Okinawa city of Ginowan, was indicted on Sunday. The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office in Okinawa has not disclosed whether he admitted the allegations. According the indictment and other sources, Ballard allegedly strangled a 39-year-old woman with a telephone cord in a guest room of a hotel in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, between around 2:10 a.m. and 4:15 a.m. on Oct. 3 and stole her backpack containing her wallet. Ballard returned to the Futenma base after leaving the hotel following his suspected crime, the investigative sources said Monday. In a statement released through a lawyer on the same day, a bereaved relative of the woman said, “I believe she must have wanted to live much longer.” Urging a real culprit to fully atone for the crime, the relative said, “I will follow the (upcoming) trial until the end.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
