A 33-year-old woman was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for killing and dismembering her husband, with the Tokyo District Court finding her liable for the murder despite being in an impaired mental state brought on by years of severe spousal abuse.
Kaori Mihashi was found guilty of fatally striking her husband, Yusuke, with a wine bottle in December 2006 and disposing of his body parts around Tokyo after cutting up the corpse in the couple's condominium in Shibuya Ward.
Presiding Judge Masaya Kawamoto acknowledged that Mihashi "lived through hell" because of the repeated abuse at her husband's hand, which at one point drove her to seek asylum at a domestic violence shelter.