OSAKA -- An executive of a real estate firm was sentenced to 15 years in prison for murdering an 81-year-old woman who refused to vacate her house, which stood in the middle of a condominium construction site.

Yoshihiro Nakano, 56, was accused of conspiring with his acquaintance, Yoji Morita, 54, to kill Koharu Miyahata in Higashinari Ward, Osaka, and dump her body in the sea.

According to the day's Osaka District Court ruling, Nakano and Morita were negotiating with Miyahata last year for her to vacate her home so they could use the site to build a condominium complex.

When the negotiations bogged down as the deadline for construction neared, they decided to kill her, the court said.

They strangled Miyahata at her home on April 23, 2000, put her body in a bag and dumped it in the sea in Okayama Prefecture.

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence for Nakano; Morita is being tried separately on the same charge.

Judge Yoshihisa Denda, however, reckoned that Nakano's motives for the murder leave no room for leniency.

Nakano and Morita were acting as agents for another real estate firm in their talks with Miyahata. They are believed to have swindled 31 million yen out of the real estate company by falsely claiming they would pay the money to Miyahata.