Mito, Ibaraki Pref., Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)–A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced a man to 20 years in prison for stalking and murdering his former girlfriend in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, in December. During earlier hearings, both prosecutors and the defense said that Takumi Ouchi, 29, had wanted to go back to the time before he met Haruka Komatsumoto and reset his life by killing her. The defendant told the court that he had decided to kill the victim, then 31, thinking he would feel better and that his mind would be clear. Komatsumoto had married about six months earlier and was five months pregnant at the time of her death. Her husband had requested a heavy sentence, saying that their simple joys of life were all taken away for unreasonable reasons. According to the indictment, Ouchi murdered Komatsumoto at her apartment in Mito on the evening of Dec. 31, 2025, by repeatedly striking her on the head with a hammer and stabbing her in the neck with a knife. He had also been charged with loitering near her apartment on several consecutive days, starting Dec. 28, and attaching a loss prevention tag to the back of her car’s license plate without consent to track her. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
