Local News in Brief : Tokyo Trial for L.A. Murder Suspects

In a case that created a sensation in Japan, prosecutors in Tokyo on Thursday indicted Kazuyoshi Miura and Yoshikuni Okubo on charges of murdering Miura’s wife in Los Angeles seven years ago to collect $700,000 on three insurance policies.

The indictment follows the arrest of Miura, 41, and Okubo, 36, on Oct. 21. Miura was already in custody, serving a six-year sentence for an earlier, unsuccessful plot against his wife.

Miura’s wife, Kazumi, then 28, was shot in the head with a .22-caliber rifle on Fremont Street near the Harbor Freeway on Nov. 18, 1981. She was in a coma for more than a year before she died in a hospital in Japan.

Miura, who was also initially regarded as a victim in what was made to look like a robbery, was accused of first-degree murder in Los Angeles last May 5, but Japanese authorities have taken jurisdiction in the case.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Louis K. Ito said “double jeopardy will preclude a Los Angeles trial in the same case, regardless of whether they are found guilty or acquitted in Japan.”