Tag: Okinawa

Here is an update from the trial of a former US Marine who killed a Japanese woman on Okinawa last year:

The parents of a 20-year-old Okinawan woman murdered last year told a packed courtroom Friday they want the former Air Force contractor charged in her death to pay for the brutal crime with his life.

“A murderer, who took my daughter’s life, should not be allowed to live,” the mother said in a statement read by her lawyer during the second day of Kenneth Franklin Gadson’s trial at Naha District Court.

Gadson, 33, a former Marine who was a civilian employee at a Kadena Air Base cable and internet provider at the time of his arrest, is charged with murder, rape resulting in death and the illegal disposal of a body in the death of Rina Shimabukuro. He is being tried under Japan’s lay judge system with three judges and six jurors.

Shimabukuro disappeared after going out for a walk on the evening of April 28, 2016. Gadson became a suspect — and was later charged in the crime — after police spotted his SUV while checking vehicles captured by security cameras in the area.

During the previous day’s proceedings — which mostly focused on whether Shimabukuro’s killing was premeditated — Gadson read a prepared statement pleading guilty to rape resulting in death and illegal disposal of the body but denied the murder charge, stating that he had “no plans to kill her.”

Gadson told the court he planned to knock her unconscious, take her to a hotel in a suitcase to rape her and release her afterward. After failing to knock her out, he panicked and was not able to complete his plan, he said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but I don’t blame the family for wanting this scumbag put down.

Oops:

A Camp Hansen Marine was arrested last week after a bullet was found in his bag at Naha Airport, Japanese police said.

Cpl. Aaron Swicegood, 25, was taken into custody at a domestic terminal security checkpoint at approximately 9:20 a.m. Friday after a live pistol round was found in his rucksack, a Tamashiro police spokesman said. Swicegood was traveling to Tokyo on his way to Los Angeles.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but this is a good reminder to make sure to check every small pocket in your bags for contraband to avoid an incident like this.

It seems like amateur hour over at the NCIS over at Okinawa.  First of all their sting operation seems quite shady using pictures of a 22-year old woman posing as a 15-year old and then hiding evidence from the defense afterwards:

Bilecki had made the question of the missing video a key part of his client’s defense prior to it being found. Introducing the video mid-trial violated discovery rules, Bilecki said.

Kimball had been on temporary duty at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, when he met an undercover Navy agent online, who claimed to be 15, Bilecki said.

The two exchanged text messages for about 20 days, Bilecki said. The agent sent at least four videos and 18 photos to Kimball. However, Bilecki said that several photos showed the agent as a 22-year-old, which could have sent his client a mixed message.

Kimball arranged to meet the agent at the Olympic Mall on base and was arrested upon arrival.

The arrest was one of dozens in a multiyear NCIS operation aimed at catching personnel interested in sex with minors on Okinawa, where about half of all U.S. forces in Japan are based. Bilecki’s Hawaii-based firm has represented multiple defendants in such cases.

“I don’t have an issue if law enforcement wants to run an undercover operation where they are targeting servicemembers seeking underage sex online,” Bilecki, a former military attorney, said Friday. “The issue our law firm has is when they use … forms of inducement and entrapment to arrest otherwise innocent individuals who are not looking to meet minors.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

The Stars & Stripes has an update on the brutal murder of an Okinawa woman by a Kadena Air Base contract worker who happened to be a former Marine stationed on the island.  The killer’s lawyer has given the Stars & Stripes transcripts of interviews with him in an effort to show the guy is mentally incompetent.  These records show how brutal the murder of this young woman was and why this guy should never be let out of jail:

A former U.S. base worker charged with raping and killing an Okinawan woman fantasized about raping women for years and thought about shooting fellow Marines as a way of attempting suicide, his lawyer said.

Former Marine Kenneth Franklin Gadson made the revelations, including gruesome details of the crime, during a jailhouse interview with his lawyers. The transcripts were released to Stars and Stripes under the condition that they not be released in their entirety.

Gadson, who worked at a Kadena Air Base cable and internet company and went by his Japanese wife’s surname of Shinzato, has been charged with murder, rape resulting in death and the illegal disposal of a body in the death of Rina Shimabukuro, 20, who disappeared April 28.

Gadson was interrogated two months later when police said he confessed to the crime. He then took police to her body in a heavily wooded area.

The crime shocked Japan and led to a surge in anti-American sentiment on Okinawa, home to about 30,000 U.S. troops.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but I don’t believe for a minute that this guy had no intention of killing her.  For example he claims he just happened to have a shovel in his car to bury the body because he keeps it there for gardening purposes.  Who keeps a shovel in their car for gardening?

Here is the latest development in the horrible rape and murder case on Okinawa by a former Marine turned base contract worker:

A former U.S. base worker will admit to a charge of rape leading to the death of a Japanese woman last year, a new development in the case that rocked the tiny island prefecture and led to a surge in anti-American sentiment.

Kenneth Franklin Gadson, a former Marine who worked as a civilian at a Kadena Air Base cable and internet company, said through his attorneys that he killed Rina Shimabukuro, 20, while attempting to rape her, according to Naha District Court documents filed Friday.

“We do not dispute the charge of rape resulting in death,” the documents said, adding that Gadson admits to striking Shimabukuro on the head from behind while attempting to rape her. “As a result, the victim died … The defendant had no murderous intent, therefore we dispute the charge of murder.”

Gadson, who also goes by his Japanese wife’s surname of Shinzato, has maintained that he did not actually rape Shimabukuro.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but it appears Gadson has some serious mental issues as well.  The bottom line is whatever his intentions and mental state was, he murdered this woman and should be spending a long time in a Japanese jail because of it.

This guy is quite the scumbag to have found a passed out Japanese woman in front of his hotel room and instead of notifying the hotel manager he decided to carry her into his room and rape her:

A U.S. sailor must serve 2½ years of hard labor for raping an intoxicated Japanese woman at a Naha hotel, an incident that sparked anti-base protests and contributed to tightened liberty restrictions on Okinawa.

Seaman Apprentice Justin Castellanos, 24, was sentenced Friday by a three-judge Naha District Court panel. His family was required to pay $21,789 in restitution to the victim, in addition to $2,842 from the U.S. military. Both amounts have been paid, officials said.

Prosecutors had sought a four-year prison term, but the chief judge said a lower sentence was accepted for the corpsman, who is assigned to Camp Schwab, because he had pleaded guilty and shown remorse for his actions.  [Stars & Stripes]

Here is the part of the article I am surprised about and makes me wonder if this is part of the Japanese legal system where actions by the victim are taken into account to mitigate the sentence of the perpetrator?:

Judges also said the woman was partly to blame for becoming incapacitated and passing out in the hallway by the sailor’s room.

If this happened in the US we would be treated by a week long news cycle on victim blaming.

Just another example of how Okinawa has turned into South Korea during the Roh Moo-hyun administration years of the early 2000’s:

The United States and Japan announced new procedures Tuesday aimed at ending status of forces agreement protection for some civilian base workers, two months after an alleged homicide by a contractor touched off massive protests targeted at the American military on Okinawa.

The new procedures would place civilians into four categories and exclude workers from SOFA who already have Japanese residency visas, according to a joint statement issued Tuesday evening.

It remained unclear after a news conference Tuesday whether the new procedures under negotiation would mean fewer SOFA-sponsored jobs; however, the statement calls on the U.S. and Japanese governments to clarify SOFA’s scope by “evaluating categories of positions eligible for status as members of the civilian component.”  [Stars & Stripes]

It looks like contractors are going to have to sit in on mandatory Powerpoint briefs now as well just like servicemembers.

Defense Department civilians and contractors in Japan are now expected to attend the same training events as their active-duty counterparts, Dolan said.

“For contractors and civilians under SOFA, I have added contract specifications that all workers will sign an acknowledgement of SOFA responsibilities, which can later be used, if needed, in any adjudication or incident review,” Dolan said in a prepared statement Tuesday.

Here is another example of the Japanese government putting unreasonable expectations on the US military in Japan:

Defense Minister Gen. Nakatani praised the U.S.-Japan security alliance but also called on the U.S. military Tuesday to “eradicate driving under the influence” of alcohol. Nakatani noted that an Air Force staff sergeant was arrested by Japanese police on DUI suspicion during curfew hours on Monday, despite recent restrictions on Okinawa.

Has Japan ended DUIs in their military?  Of course not because when it comes to large populations there is always going to be crime committed.  What is important is what is the trends of the number of crimes committed?  For US Forces on Okinawa statistics have shown that per capita they commit crime at a much lower rate than the surrounding population.

Like I have always said, with such a large population of servicemembers on Okinawa these incidents are going to keep happening regardless of how many restrictions are put on troops.  So the anti-US activists are going to continue to find reasons to bash the US military presence on Okinawa:

A U.S. airman was taken into custody after being pulled over for driving erratically around 4:30 a.m. Monday and then failing a Breathalyzer test, according to a police spokesman in Okinawa City.

Staff Sgt. Christopher Aaron Platte, 27, assigned to Kadena Air Base, was driving in the Chatan area near the Jagaru highway intersection when police spotted a car moving in a zigzag manner, the spokesman said.

Police conducted a Breathalyzer test after smelling alcohol on his breath. They said he denied drinking, then tested just under 0.04 percent blood alcohol content, above Japan’s legal limit of 0.03.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Sort of good news for servicemembers stationed in Okinawa:

The period of unity and mourning that was imposed for U.S. forces on Okinawa following the slaying of a 20-year-old woman will end Monday.

Established U.S. Forces Japan liberty policies will continue in effect “with a few modifications,” according to a statement issued Friday by III Marine Expeditionary Force. All celebrations and concerts, including fireworks displays associated with the July 4th holiday, already had been canceled.

Cinderella Liberty went into effect May 27 after a U.S. civilian base worker, Kenneth Franklin Gadson, was arrested in connection with the death of Rina Shimabukuro. He has been charged with illegally disposing of her body, and police have recommended additional charges of murder and rape resulting in death.

“We are part of the Okinawan community, and share in mourning and honoring the victim, her family, and grieve with the people of Okinawa,” the statement said. “On behalf of all U.S. forces, we continue to stand united with the people of Okinawa during this time of mourning. Our prayers, thoughts and condolences are offered to the family, friends and loved ones who lost their family member tragically.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but basically servicemembers still have a 12AM-5AM curfew and cannot drink between those times.  They also need a battle buddy to go off post with.  So it is basically what the rules in the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea used to be.

This is yet another example that Okinawa has turned into South Korea circa 2002:

An overflow crowd of some 65,000 people packed a sports stadium Sunday to demand that U.S. forces leave Okinawa and drop a plan to move Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a more remote area on the island.

Similar demonstrations were also scheduled in 41 of Japan’s 47 prefectures. More than 7,000 people gathered outside the Japanese parliament building in Tokyo to join the demand for a U.S. pullout and to bash Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

A recent rash of crimes, including the slaying of a 20-year-old woman that has been linked to a U.S. civilian base worker, have tapped into Okinawa resentment over the disproportionate number of U.S. troops here, compared with the rest of Japan, and a sense of abandonment and betrayal by the central government even after it regained control of the island in 1972.

With U.S. servicemembers, family members and others with SOFA status strongly encouraged to avoid the protest area, Gov. Takeshi Onaga called for a total withdrawal of Marines.

“I will never forgive the inhumane and brutal act that trampled women’s human rights. I am indignant,” said Onaga, who won election on an anti-base platform.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but it is interesting that the anti-US base Governor is only calling for an end to the US Marine presence on the island.  It would be interesting statistic to see if the Marines really do cause more crime than the other service branches on Okinawa?  It has already been shown that the US military overall commits far less crime per capita than the local population, but of course none of this matters to activists looking to use any crime they can to advance their political agenda.  It is an impossibility for such a large population of US military servicemembers on Okinawa to be completely crime free which means the activists will continue to find incidents to protest.