Life term given to U.S. sailor for killing taxi driver+

YOKOHAMA, July 30 Kyodo -
A 23-year-old U.S. sailor was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for killing
a Japanese taxi driver last year in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.

During the trial at the Yokohama District Court, the focal point was whether
Seaman Olatunbosun Ugbogu, 23, a Nigerian national serving in the U.S. Navy,
was sufficiently mentally competent to be held criminally responsible for his
acts, as he testified in court that he heard ''voices'' ordering him to kill
the taxi driver.
In Thursday's decision, Presiding Judge Masaaki Kawaguchi found Ugbogu fully
competent and said it was a ''self-centered'' crime, rejecting the argument of
his defense counsel that he was insane at the time of the crime.
Prosecutors had sought life imprisonment for the defendant, arguing that Ugbogu
made false testimonies and was fully competent.
According to the ruling, Ugbogu got into the taxi of Masaaki Takahashi, 61, in
Tokyo on March 19, 2008, instructed the driver to stop in Yokosuka, then failed
to pay the fare and fatally stabbed Takahashi with a knife.
The defendant then fled from the scene of the crime, though without stealing
any money.
Ugbogu, who was a crew member of the 9,600-ton guided missile cruiser Cowpens,
deserted the U.S. Navy at Yokosuka base in early March last year.
''This murder by a deserter shocked the residents living near the U.S. base,''
Judge Kawaguchi said.
Navy authorities seized Ugbogu after the case came to light and handed him over
to Japanese police under a new arrangement in the Status of Forces Agreement
that was worked out after the 1995 rape of a Japanese girl by three U.S.
servicemen in Okinawa.