Ex-Nagoya University Student Indicted For Murder

Ouchi Maria, Club Leader

Prosecutors indicted Maria Ouchi, a 20-year-old former Nagoya University student, on Thursday on charges of murdering an elderly woman and attempting to murder two friends when she was a minor, after she was found competent through psychiatric examination, the prosecutors said.

Ouchi will be tried as an adult.  Although she was a minor at the time of the murder, prosecutors convinced the judge through past charges as a minor that she posed a "real and convincing threat to society" because of the past criminal record and the brutal nature in which she killed the 77 year old, Tomoko Mori.

The high-profile case drew public attention at the time as the accused told investigators after her arrest that she had wanted to kill somebody.

According to the indictment, when the woman was 19 years old she allegedly killed a 77-year-old female acquaintance in Nagoya on Dec 7 by incapacitating her with an ax before strangling the victim. She also attempted to kill two different friends on separate occasions when she was a high-school student in 2012 by getting them both to ingest a toxic substance called thallium sulfate in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture.

Additionally, she is charged with arson for allegedly setting fire to a house in Sendai in an attempt to kill a resident on Dec 13.

The prosecutors declined to disclose whether she admitted to the allegations.

The Nagoya Family Court sent the case back to the prosecutors in September, saying the murder of the 77-year-old woman, Tomoko Mori, was committed “out of curiosity as she wanted to kill somebody.” The defendant had become acquainted with Mori when the victim introduced her to a religion.

The family court said at that time that the former student should be tried at a criminal court as an adult, after putting her under observation and protection for two weeks, noting her psychiatric problems have little bearing on the cases.

A family court is primarily in charge of trying juvenile cases.