Man Convicted in Japan of L.A. Murder Attempt

Japanese businessman Kazuyoshi Miura was convicted Thursday by a local district court of the attempted murder of his wife in Los Angeles six years ago.

The court then sentenced him to six years in prison.

Presiding Judge Mitsunori Shojima called Miura’s crime “premeditated” and “inhumane.”

The judge’s ruling followed the conviction of Miura’s girlfriend, Michiko Yazawa, 25, as an accomplice in the case. She was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in January, 1986. She appealed the verdict but was turned down by an appellate court last August.

The prosecution charged that Miura, 40, asked Yazawa to kill his wife, Kazumi, while the couple visited Los Angeles in August, 1981.

Yazawa, a former pornographic film actress, attacked Kazumi with a hammer in her hotel room, but Kazumi Miura suffered only a minor head injury.

At her trial, Yazawa said she attacked the woman after Miura offered to marry her and share the insurance money he would receive from his wife’s death.

Three months later, both Miuras were shot during a Los Angeles street robbery. Miura was slightly injured, but his wife lapsed into a coma from her wounds. Miura accompanied his unconscious wife home aboard a U.S.-provided aircraft amid much publicity.

Miura’s wife died one year later in Japan, and he collected $750,000 in insurance money.

The flamboyant antique and furniture importer was arrested Sept. 11, 1985. He pleaded innocent throughout his legal proceedings.

Miura was suspected of engineering the shooting incident, according to local news reports. He reportedly is also a principal suspect in the murder of his former girlfriend, Chizuko Shiraishi, who was found dead in Los Angeles in 1979.

Los Angeles County district attorney’s investigators are reportedly scheduled to fly to Tokyo soon to investigate the cases involving Miura’s wife and Shiraishi.