Los Angeles News

LOS ANGELES The attorney for a Japanese businessman accused of conspiring to murder his wife 27 years ago in Los Angeles called Saturday for a thorough investigation into his death by hanging in a Los Angeles County jail cell.

Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, was found hanging in his cell about 9:45 p.m. Friday, just hours after he arrived in the United States from Saipan, a U.S. territory Miura had been visiting when he was arrested in February, Deputy Chief Charlie Beck of the Los Angeles Police Department said at a news conference at the Parker Center police headquarters.

Miura, who was still dressed in street clothes, was pronounced dead at County-USC Medical Center, he said.

The news conference was packed with journalists from around the world, and especially Japan, where Miura had been dubbed "the Japanese O.J. Simpson" and his case followed closely for decades.

"It was apparent that the murder suspect, alone in his cell, had used a piece of his shirt as a makeshift ligature around his neck," Beck said.

Frank Garcia, the LAPD's lead detective on the murder case since the mid-1980s, told the Los Angeles Times he was surprised that Miura was dead. But he said authorities were aware that Miura was "terrified" of being in an American prison.

"That was Miura's big fear: He never wanted to set foot in this country," Garcia told the newspaper. "He never wanted to return because of the jail system here. He was terrified of it. It's not a nice place to be."

However, Mark Geragos, Miura's attorney, who was in New York, told The Times, "none of this makes any sense."

He told the newspaper a lawyer had visited with Miura earlier Friday and that he was in good spirits.

"There was no indication that he was despondent or depressed," Geragos said. "There was no indication whatsoever of problems. He was ready and girded for the fight."

Geragos said he will seek an independent death investigation, and that he was upset that he had not "gotten a straight or cogent explanation about what happened."

He said the District Attorney's Office told him about the death about 12:15 a.m.

Authorities also contacted the Japanese Consulate General's Office, which notified Miura's family in Japan.

Japanese Consul General Masaru Dekiba said he was "astonished" that
Miura had apparently committed suicide. He said he talked with Miura Friday morning and that he appeared to be "very nice and healthy."

Beck said nothing was amiss when a jailer checked on Miura at 9:35 p.m. Friday.

"The detention officers assigned to the portion of the jail housing Miura had conducted a required cell check, with nothing unusual to report, approximately 10 minutes prior," Beck said.

Walking by the cell 10 minutes later, an officer saw that Miura was unconscious and hanging by a piece of his shirt.

Despite immediate attempts to provide CPR and efforts by both medical personnel on site and Los Angeles Fire Department personnel, Miura was pronounced dead at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center, Beck said.

Miura had arrived at Los Angeles International Airport early Friday, accompanied by Los Angeles police detectives, after his arrest in the U.S. territory of Saipan Feb. 21. Miura arrived at Parker Center before 6 a.m. Friday and was housed alone in his cell pending an arraignment next week.

"He was not on suicide watch, and we had no obvious evidence that he was suicidal," Beck said. "He was extremely cooperative on the trip over. He had visitors from the (Japanese) Consulate and discussions with his attorney."

No suicide note was found.

Beck repeatedly stressed that the investigation into Miura's death will be thorough. The LAPD Force Investigation Division will handle the process but, as with other in-custody deaths, the investigation will be reviewed by the police chief and the Board of Police Commissioners. The law also provides for additional review by state agencies in certain circumstances.

Detective Rick Jackson of the LAPD's Cold Case Homicide Unit stood on the stage with Beck at the news conference but declined to comment when a reporter asked how he felt about Miura's death after the LAPD had worked for decades on this case.

Beck spoke on Jackson's behalf and said it was too early to ask such a question, but that when Jackson was informed of the suicide, "he was shocked and dismayed. And so was I."

Miura's wife Kazumi was shot in the head near downtown Los Angeles in 1981, then was moved to Japan, where she died the next year at age 28.

Miura was tried for his wife's murder in Japan and found guilty in 1994, but the conviction was reversed and "an acquittal was entered by the High Court in Japan," according to court papers filed by Geragos in March.

In February, Miura wrote on his blog that he planned to visit Saipan, where he was arrested on a 1988 warrant as he tried to return to Japan. He at first fought extradition, but in September he agreed to return to Los Angeles after Torrance Superior Court Judge Steven Van Sicklen dismissed the murder charge for being double jeopardy, because Miura had been tried on that charge in Japan.

"However, because the defendant was not convicted or acquitted of the
crime of conspiracy in Japan, the current prosecution on that charge may go forward," Van Sicklen wrote in an 18-page ruling issued after four court hearings that began in April.

But in a 25-page motion filed Friday, Deputy District Attorneys Ricardo Ocampo and Alan Jackson argued that the section of law under which Miura was claiming double jeopardy does not recognize convictions or acquittals outside the United States and asked that the murder charge be reinstated. A hearing on the motion had been set for next Thursday.

"We fully support that request," police Capt. Denis Cremins said. "Detectives who have been involved in this investigation have no doubt that
Mr. Miura is responsible for his wife's death."

Miura was scheduled to be arraigned on the conspiracy charge on Tuesday and faced a possible sentence of 25 years to life in state prison.

In a statement released in May 1988 after the murder and conspiracy charges were filed in Los Angeles, prosecutors alleged Miura collected about $750,000 from life insurance policies on his wife.

Prosecutors also alleged Miura "solicited five different people to murder his wife," although no gunman was ever apprehended.

"Irony of ironies, that after all this time he's finally back and now this," LAPD Chief William Bratton told The Times this morning. "It's tragic in the sense that the opportunity to have him go before a court, well, that opportunity is not going to present itself. Whatever his reason for taking his own life, well, it leaves the whole matter unsettled." 

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)