Japanese Tells Court He Didn’t Plot to Murder Wife in L.A.
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TOKYO — A Japanese businessman accused of plotting to murder his wife in Los Angeles maintained his innocence today at the end of a 16-month trial he described as a witch hunt.
Kazuyoshi Miura, in a statement to Tokyo District Court, denied that he had conspired with a lover to murder his wife, Kazumi.
Miura’s former companion, Michiko Yazawa, has admitted attacking Kazumi with a hammer in a Los Angeles hotel at Miura’s request. She is serving a 2 1/2-year sentence for that assault.
Miura’s wife was shot by an unidentified attacker in November, 1981, on a Los Angeles street. She lapsed into a coma and died a year later without regaining consciousness.
The Miura trial has been covered extensively by Japanese television, which has staged dramatizations of appearances by Miura and Yazawa.
A verdict is due in July.
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