Court gives man life sentence for murder of wife and daughter in order to ‘continue relationship with lover’

AICHI (TR) – A court here last month sentenced a 31-year-old man to life in prison for murdering his wife and then-1-year-old daughter in their Niigata City home three years ago.

According to the Nov. 22 verdict, Ken Watanabe, a former nurse, strangled his then-29-year-old wife Haruka and one-year-old daughter Jun-chan with a rope at their home in Minami Ward in November 2021.

In addition to murder, the defendant was also charged with attempted murder and planned murder.

Seven months before the murders, he mixed sleeping pills into Haruka’s drinking water and did not stop her from driving out in a car with Jun-chan, only to kill her in a resulting traffic accident.

Five months later, he also stole 10 bottles of potassium chloride from the hospital where he was working to plan a murder.

During the trial, Watanabe admitted to the murder. “There is no doubt about it,” he said. But he added: “I had no intention of killing my wife and daughter. I stole the potassium chloride, but I didn’t intend to kill my wife.”

Watanabe married Haruka in May 2018. However, eight months later, in January 2019, he began an affair with a nurse at work.

Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence, pointing out that the motive for the murders was “to eliminate his wife and daughter, who represented an obstacle to the continuation of his relationship with his lover, a work colleague.”

The defense requested a fixed-term prison sentence. “The defendant’s remorse is gradually deepening and it cannot be said that he has no opportunity for rehabilitation.”

“I want a divorce”

As previously reported, Watanabe had accumulated debts and stolen funds from his wife’s bank account.

In a hearing on November 7, exactly three years after the murders, Watanabe described to the court the moments that led to the murder of his wife and child.

That morning, Watanabe got into an argument with Haruka over caring for their child and household chores, reports Fuji News Network (November 10).

He told the court. “I couldn’t take it anymore, so I told her, ‘I want a divorce.’ I’m always the one who does the housework, and you don’t do anything around the house. Please divorce me.’ At first she seemed surprised, but then she said, “Are you sure you want to say that?” You had an affair, ran up debt, and used the money in my account to pay it off without my permission. So you have neither the right nor the qualifications to say that. You should be grateful that you’ve been with me so far.”

Watanabe continued that he went to the closet to get the rope that he had left there earlier. At that moment, Haruka’s family members sniffed in the gallery and held back tears that echoed throughout the courtroom.

Of his daughter, he said: “I held her and said, ‘I’m sorry.’ But after that I was very afraid of my daughter.”

When asked why he was afraid, he said, “Because I witnessed the whole process of killing my wife and my daughter’s face resembled my wife’s.”

Then he was reminded that she was only a year old. “She’s only a year old, but I thought maybe in the future she would remember what happened,” he said.