U.S. sailor sentenced for 2 stabbings in Japan
A Japanese court found a U.S. sailor guilty of stabbing two Japanese women near Tokyo last year and sentenced him to eight years in prison, officials said Thursday.
Joshua David Williams, 20, was convicted of attempted murder in Yokohama District Court, court official Yoshie Ueki said.
Williams, based at a large U.S. Navy facility in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo, was accused of stabbing a 17-year-old girl and a 27-year-old woman in his off-base apartment in July 2007. The sailor stabbed the teenager in the stomach, causing serious injury, and slashed the other woman’s back.
The court refused to say what Williams had pleaded. Local newspapers have reported that Williams said he never intended to kill the women.
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