Osaka High Court

 In the appeal trial of Saki Sudo (30), the former wife accused of murdering wealthy businessman Kosuke Nozaki—known as the “Don Juan of Kishu”—by administering a fatal dose of stimulant drugs, the Osaka High Court on the 23rd upheld the not‑guilty verdict handed down in the first trial by the Wakayama District Court’s lay judge panel. Presiding Judge Kazuhiro Murakoshi dismissed the prosecution’s appeal, maintaining the original ruling (prosecution’s demand: life imprisonment).

Sudo was indicted for allegedly causing Nozaki (then 77) to ingest a lethal amount of stimulant drugs by some method at his home on May 24, 2018. In the first trial, she pleaded not guilty, stating, “I did not kill him, nor did I make him take stimulants.” The key issues were whether Nozaki’s death involved criminal intent (“incident nature”) and, if so, whether Sudo was the perpetrator (“perpetrator identity”).

The first‑instance ruling in December 2024 pointed out the possibility that Nozaki had obtained the stimulants himself and accidentally consumed a fatal dose. While acknowledging that Sudo and Nozaki were alone at the time of his death and that she had a potential motive—namely, inheriting a large estate—the court concluded that “the evidence is insufficient to infer that the defendant committed the killing.”

In the appeal trial, prosecutors argued that the first ruling misjudged the overall evaluation of circumstantial evidence, citing Sudo’s internet searches such as “elderly perfect crime” and allegations that she had ordered stimulant drugs from a dealer. The defense countered by seeking dismissal of the appeal.