The Tokyo District Court sentenced a man to death and his twin brother to life imprisonment Friday for robbing and killing the owner and the manager of a sado-masochist club in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward in 1995.
Shinji Mutsuda, 27, was sentenced to death while his twin, Kenji, was given life in prison. Both worked at the club.
In Friday's ruling, presiding Judge Toru Iwase determined that Shinji was the main perpetrator and said he had no choice but to sentence him to death because he committed the crimes solely for money. The brothers took over the club's management after the murders, an act the judge called "audacious."
According to the court, the twins, in conspiracy with Taizo Shintani, a 27-year-old gangster being tried separately, fatally stabbed club owner Kiyoshi Hashiguchi, 32, and manager Kiyohiro Hashiguchi, 32, with a knife at the club on Dec. 21, 1995, and stole about 200,000 yen.
The club, which was not named, was located inside a condominium building in Shinagawa Ward. After the killings, the twins, along with four accomplices, sealed the bodies in a wooden box with concrete and threw it into the sea from Kashima port in Ibaraki Prefecture, according to the court. The four accomplices were found guilty in another trial.
After discarding the bodies, Shinji Mutsuda withdrew about 40 million yen from Hashiguchi's bank account and made profits of about 130 million yen by running the club, which he took over after the crime, the court said.