Prosecutors say Miura ‘a desperate man’

In opposing the granting of bail to murder suspect Kazuyoshi Miura, government lawyers argue that the Japanese national is a desperate man who poses a significant risk to the community.

Any citizen who stands between Miura and his freedom would be in grave danger, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Assistant attorneys general Jeffery L. Warfield Sr. and Mike A. Nisperos Jr. cited Miura’s decades-long criminal history.

“He is a desperate man in a desperate situation,” said the prosecutors in the government’s nine-page opposition brief filed yesterday in the Superior Court at 4:33pm. In it, the government opposes the defendant’s request to modify his bail.

Warfield and Nisperos said that under CNMI law, Miura is not allowed to post bail because he is being extradited to answer the charges of special circumstances murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

These charges, they said, are punishable by life imprisonment or death under the laws of the State of California.

“Furthermore, even if Miura were not statutorily prohibited bail, he would not be entitled to bail under the circumstances because he poses a significant risk to the community and a substantial flight risk,” the prosecutors said.

In asserting that the defendant is a danger to the CNMI community, the prosecutors said that Miura has a felony criminal history that spans many decades.

The government lawyers noted that in addition to the premeditated murder charge and conspiracy to commit murder charge that California now seeks extradition for, Miura has a documented history of convicted felonious activity in Japan, including multiple arson, multiple thefts, forgery of an official document and possession of unlawful weapons.

Attaching an affidavit of a California detective in support of the complaint for Miura’s extradition, the prosecutors narrated how the defendant plotted the murder of his wife, Kazumi, in November 1981 to collect insurance benefits.

“There is no justification to suffer the danger he poses to the people of the Commonwealth if he is released from custody,” the prosecutors said.

As to the issue of flight risk, the prosecutors said it is plausible for Miura to seek fraudulent exit papers, commission another to unlawfully take him by plane or boat to another jurisdiction, or undertake some other means to exit the Commonwealth.

“If he would kill for money, can there be any doubt that he would run for freedom?” the lawyers asked.

The prosecutors said that Miura is facing death or life imprisonment in California.

“If he is given any chance to escape that fate, it is reasonable to believe he will take it,” they added.

In Miura’s motion for bail modification, his lawyer argued that the businessman should be released temporarily because a defendant in a murder case is entitled to bail in the CNMI and in California.

Attorney Bruce Berline, one of Miura’s lawyers, argued that contrary to the prosecution’s assertion in the last hearing, a person charged with murder and even murder in the first degree in the CNMI, is entitled to a bail hearing and may be released on bail.

Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona will hear the motion tomorrow, Friday, at 2pm.

Miura, 60, was arrested by Saipan authorities at the Saipan International Airport on Feb. 22 in connection with the murder of his wife, Kazumi Miura, in L.A. in 1981.

Miura had already been convicted in Japan in 1994 of the crime. The verdict, however, was overturned by Japan’s high court 10 years ago.