WAKAYAMA – The widow of a wealthy playboy has been found not guilty of murdering him after prosecutors failed to prove she committed a “perfect crime.”
The Wakayama District Court on Dec. 12 acquitted Saki Sudo, 28, of charges in the 2018 death of Kosuke Nozaki, 77, in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture.
The public prosecutor's office demanded a life sentence from the citizen judges in the trial.
However, there was no direct evidence linking Suda to Nozaki's death and she always maintained her innocence.
Nozaki, a successful businessman, was dubbed the “Don Juan of Kishu” in the news media for his boasts of sleeping with thousands of women.
He was found dead in the upstairs bedroom of his home on May 24, 2018, about three months after his marriage to Sudo.
Sudo was indicted on murder and other charges in 2021. Prosecutors said she killed Nozaki by making him take a fatal dose of methamphetamine.
Prosecutors argued that only Sudo and Nozaki were in the house during the more than three-hour period in which Nozaki was believed to have died. Investigators said Sudo was the only one who could have forced him to take the drugs.
Prosecutors also argued that Nozaki Sudo was pushing for a divorce at the time and that her motive for murder was to obtain a huge inheritance.
In addition, prosecutors noted that Sudo had searched the Internet for “older man, perfect crime” and “methamphetamine, death” shortly after her marriage.
They said she learned how to commit a perfect crime that leaves no evidence and that she inherited part of his fortune.
Sudo denied the allegations, saying: “I did not kill the president (Nozaki) and I did not force him to take methamphetamine.”
The defense argued there was no evidence that Nozaki was forced to take methamphetamine in the first place and suggested he may have taken the drugs himself.
As for the Internet searches, Suda testified that she only used these search terms to satisfy her curiosity about unsolved and spooky crimes.
The defense countered that there was no “divorce crisis” between Sudo and Nozaki and that Sudo receives 1 million yen ($6,570) every month from her husband.
She had no reason to kill him, her lawyers said.
(This article was written by Shinichi Kawarada and Hideki Ito.)
