Authorities arrested at Saipan International Airport on Friday a Japanese businessman who was the suspect in the murder of his wife in Los Angeles 27 years ago.
An officer at the Department of Corrections confirmed to Saipan Tribune yesterday that a Japanese named Kazuyoshi Miura has been detained at DOC.
The DOC officer, who requested anonymity, said they received calls from U.S. and Japan about the arrest of Miura. The officer said they are not authorized to release information about the case.
Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lei Ogumoro also confirmed yesterday that she received information that a Japanese national was indeed arrested
Ogumoro said the Attorney General's Investigative Unit is handling the matter. She said a hearing may be conducted today, Monday. She said she has no details about the arrest and the case.
According to the Associated Press, Miura, 60, had already been convicted in Japan in 1994 of the murder of his wife, Kazumi Miura.
The AP said the verdict, however, was overturned by Japan's high courts 10 years ago.
The AP quoted Los Angeles police that Miura was arrested Friday while visiting Saipan after cold-case detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department worked with CNMI and GUAM authorities.
"A murder suspect who has been eluding (the) dragnet has been finally captured," the LAPD said. "Miura’s extradition is pending."
According to AP, Miura’s attorney Junichiro Hironaka told Japan’s Fuji TV late Saturday that the arrest "astonished" him.
"My understanding was that the case was already closed both in Japan and the U.S., especially after their joint investigation," Hironaka said. "It’s quite a surprise."
Miura and his wife were visiting Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 1981, when they were shot in a parking lot. Miura was hit in the right leg, while his 28-year-old wife was shot in the head.
His wife remained in a coma and was taken in an Air Force hospital jet to Japan, where she eventually died. Miura blamed street robbers on the attack and railed from his hospital bed against what he called a violent city.
The incident reinforced Japanese stereotypes of violence in the U.S. at a time when Los Angeles was preparing for the 1984 Olympics and was particularly sensitive about its overseas image. The LAPD vowed to find the killers.
Daryl Gates, who was police chief at the time of the killing, said Saturday that Miura was a key suspect even then.
"I remember the case well. I think he killed his wife," said Gates, who had not heard about Miura’s arrest before he spoke Saturday afternoon. "We had Japanese police come over; they believed he was guilty, we believed he was guilty, but we couldn’t prove it."
Miura, a clothing importer who traveled regularly to the U.S., had said he would write then-President Reagan and then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and urge them to make the city safer.
"Many young Japanese will be coming to the U.S. with their dreams in their hearts," Miura said at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I strongly hope this accident will never occur again."
In 1984, however, Miura’s image as a grieving husband was tarnished by a series of news articles in Japan.
Miura reportedly collected about $1.4 million (?940,000) at today’s exchange rate on life insurance policies he had taken out on his wife. In addition, an actress who claimed to be Miura’s lover told a newspaper that Miura had hired her to kill his wife in their hotel room on a trip to L.A. three months before the shootings.
Miura was arrested in Japan in 1985 on suspicion of assaulting his wife with intent to kill her for insurance money in the hotel incident. He was convicted of attempted murder and while serving a six-year sentence was charged under Japanese law in 1988 with his wife’s murder.
Miura was convicted of that charge in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison. Four years later, however, a Japanese high court overturned the sentence, throwing out a lower court’s determination that Miura conspired with a friend in Los Angeles to kill his wife.
News of Miura’s arrest made front-page headlines in Japan.
"Why now?" asked the Mainichi newspaper.
A duty official at Japan’s National Police Agency said that there was no notice from U.S. authorities before the arrest and that the news surprised him. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of internal policy.
After his acquittal in 2003, Miura often spoke publicly about false accusation and hounding media coverage.
He has been arrested at least twice since 2003, most recently on suspicion of stealing health supplements at a drugstore near Tokyo last year. Miura denied the charges and is free on bail. His trial is pending. (With reports from Associated Press)
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