TOKYO: A Japanese court ruled Thursday (Dec 12) that the young widow of an elderly real estate mogul was not guilty of murdering the self-described "Don Juan" just months into their marriage, local media reported.
Jiji Press and other local outlets said Saki Sudo, now 28, was acquitted by a district court in western Japan, which could not immediately confirm the verdict.
Kosuke Nozaki, who ran a real estate business, liquor sales company and money-lending enterprise, died after ingesting a lethal dose of a stimulant in 2018 at the age of 77.
"The reason I make money is to date attractive women," he wrote in his best-selling autobiography titled "Don Juan of Kishu" after the rural region where he lived.
In the 2016 book, he claimed to have spent three billion yen ($20 million today) on wooing 4,000 women.
"I have no interest in cars or houses. Instead, I have a boundless desire to have sex with beautiful women," he said in the autobiography, which included chapters on how to seduce college students and cabin crew.
Prosecutors had accused Sudo of killing Nozaki by making him take a large amount of an unspecified stimulant drug.
Some reports suggested the substance may have been mixed into a drink, as no needle marks were found on his body.
But it was possible Nozaki "took a lethal dose by mistake", Jiji quoted the presiding judge as saying Thursday.
Nozaki built his fortune from nothing, selling metal scraps, condoms and liquor among other items, according to the website of his book's publisher.
In his will, he reportedly said he wanted to donate his entire estate of an estimated 1.3 billion yen to the city of Tanabe in Wakayama prefecture where he lived.
But because half goes to his widow under civil law, the city started talks with Sudo about splitting the money, the Sankei Shimbun reported.
In a column Nozaki wrote for the Gendai Business website months before his death, he said he was "confident of becoming happy" by marrying Sudo, even though people had warned him she was probably after his cash. - AFP
