‘Most Wanted’ to Feature Sakai Slaying

Los Angeles prosecutors and police have observed that the plot to kill wealthy Tarzana businessman Takashi Sakai had all the elements of a mystery novel, but the case will make it first to the television screen tonight on “America’s Most Wanted.”

Authorities hope the television show’s grim re-creation of the April 20, 1987, murder of Sakai, who was stabbed to death in a Beverly Hills mansion and then buried in Malibu, will lead them to the fugitive charged with the killing: Sakai’s 22-year-old son, Toru Sakai.

As the story is being nationally televised, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lonnie Felker and Los Angeles Police Detective Jerry LeFrois will be in the show’s Washington broadcast center to take calls from viewers who may know Toru Sakai’s whereabouts.

Wanted Posters

Coinciding with tonight’s show, Fox Broadcasting Co. also has sent 1,000 wanted posters with the fugitive’s photograph to police departments, newspapers and television stations across the country.

Authorities said the crime show may be their best chance of capturing Toru Sakai. Though acknowledging that some “dramatic liberty” was taken in filming the re-creation of the murder, officials said they did not believe the show would hinder Toru Sakai’s right to a fair trial if he is captured.

“We would love to round him up,” Felker said. “This show will give the search nationwide exposure. We hope it will lead to his capture.”

The Los Angeles authorities plan to be on hand to answer calls on the show’s telephone hot lines because their knowledge of the case allows them to screen tips and identify valid information. Jack Breslin, a spokesman for Fox, said an average of 2,000 calls and 100 significant leads have followed previous shows.

“We can screen the calls and determine whether they will be helpful,” Felker said. “If someone spots him or has some information useful to us, we will be able to get the ball rolling very quickly.”

Authorities said they approached the producers of “America’s Most Wanted,” with the Sakai case because the program, in its first year, has a high rate of returning leads on fugitives.

23 Arrests

The show, broadcast at 8 p.m. on KTTV Channel 11, has profiled 53 fugitive cases so far, and viewer information has led to the capture of 23 suspects, Breslin said. The only previous Los Angeles case re-created on the show, a 1987 Sun Valley murder, resulted in the arrest of a suspect near Tampa, Fla., in April.

Toru Sakai fled from the Sakai family’s home in Tarzana in February, shortly before police gained warrants to arrest him and his mother, Sanae Sakai. His mother has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to the slaying of her estranged husband and is awaiting trial while free on bail.

Police said Toru Sakai, with the help of his best friend, Greg Meier, killed his 54-year-old father because he feared his parents’ separation and impending divorce would leave him and his mother in financial turmoil.

According to investigators, the elder Sakai, an international investment expert who moved from Japan to Los Angeles with his family 20 years ago, was lured to an empty mansion on Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills and beaten by his son and Meier. Police said Toru Sakai stabbed his father to death, and the body was taken to Malibu Canyon in Toru Sakai’s Porsche and buried.

Grant of Immunity

Nearly a year later, when detectives linked Meier to the crime through fingerprint evidence, Meier agreed to lead police to the body and testify about what happened in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Tonight’s broadcast is largely a reenactment of how Meier, 21, said the murder occurred when he testified during Sanae Sakai’s preliminary court hearing in May. Meier appears on the show in a dark silhouette and narrates small segments. The murder sequences are portrayed by actors using simulated sets and some actual crime locations, such as the clearing near the Malibu Canyon tunnel where the victim was buried.

Because Los Angeles authorities provided the show’s producers only with information available in court testimony or already published in newspapers, they believed the program would not prejudice the cases against Toru Sakai and his mother, Felker said last week. He noted that he had not seen a preview of the completed show.

“We have been very careful with what information was given,” Felker said. “The producers wanted more details, and we refused. We don’t want to jeopardize the prosecution.

“They took some dramatic liberty with re-creating it, but we worked closely with them to keep it authentic.”

The show’s executive producer, Michael Linder, said most of the cases the show profiles, the Sakai case included, have already received heavy local publicity and the national exposure has never hindered the selection of an impartial jury.

“We have never had a complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union,” Linder said. “We don’t reach 100% of the audience.”