Former 'Attack on Titan' manga editor sentenced to 11 years in jail for murdering wife
Park Jung-hyun, a former editor of the popular manga series Attack on Titan, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for murdering his wife almost eight years ago.
According to major Japanese news outlet Mainichi Shimbun, the court determined that Park had fatally strangled his 38-year-old wife Kanako at their home in Bunkyo City, Japan after the presiding judge deemed him untrustworthy with regards to his testimonies.
After the former editor was arrested in 2017 and was subjected to trials, he was inconsistent on details about the cause of his wife's death. He initially reasoned that she had fallen down the stairs before changing his testimony to her committing suicide by hanging herself on the railing of the stairs.
On why he suddenly changed the story, Park explained that he could not "say to his children that [their mother] committed suicide," according to Tokyo Reporter.
Despite this, the court noted how he did not make any mention of suicide to the ambulance personnel when they responded to the distress call. Authorities stated that they found Kanako lying face-up at the base of a staircase and was pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital an hour later.
An autopsy later revealed the cause of death to be suffocation due to pressure applied around the neck.
In March 2019, the Tokyo District Court first ruled that Park committed the murder in their bedroom, citing the presence of "bloodstains mixed with his wife's saliva, both of which are reactions to being strangled, and signs of incontinence."
His case went back and forth since then until the Tokyo High Court ultimately charged Park with the murder, saying that he acted with "strong intent" to kill his wife and pointed out the inconsistency of his story.
After the verdict was handed down, Park shouted in the courtroom, "Your Honor, you're wrong. I didn't do it."
He is now facing an 11-year prison term from an original 15-year sentence.
Park was previously an editor for publishing company Kodansha beginning in 1999, wherein he became the editor-in-charge of Attack on Titan when it was released in 2009. He also worked on the fantasy manga series The Seven Deadly Sins.