Truck driver sentenced to death for hit-and-run deaths of two people
June 24, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)

FUKUSHIMA
The Koriyama branch of the Fukushima District Court has sentenced a 51-year-old man to death for the hit-and-run deaths of two people in Miharu, Fukushima Prefecture, last year.

According to the court ruling handed down on Thursday, Yoshitaka Morito, of no fixed occupation or address, was driving a small truck he had stolen, when he hit and killed a 51-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman as they were cutting grass along the side of National Route 288 at around 7:55 a.m. on May 31, Fuji TV reported. After hitting the couple, Morito kept going.

Another worker witnessed the incident and called 110. Morito, who did not have a license to drive a truck, was found four hours later about 20 kilometers away parked on a road in Sukagawa City.

Prosecutors argued that Morito ran the couple down deliberately, while his lawyer said it could not be proven that there was clear intent to kill. 

Morito’s lawyer said he will appeal the ruling.

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Man sentenced to death for driving truck into road cleaners in Fukushima
June 24, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
Japanese version















(Mainichi)
FUKUSHIMA -- A man convicted of killing two road cleaners in the Fukushima Prefecture town of Miharu in May last year by ramming into them with a truck was sentenced to death at the Koriyama branch of the Fukushima District Court on June 24.

Yoshitaka Morito, 51, an unemployed man of no fixed address, was handed the death penalty at the lay judge trial as sought by prosecutors. The victims were a man and a woman.
Lawyers for Morito are set to appeal the ruling.

(Japanese original by Naohiro Koenuma, Fukushima Bureau)