A Tokyo man was sentenced Feb. 18 to life in prison for killing a woman who lived two doors down from him in a condominium in Koto Ward and mutilating her body last year.

While prosecutors highlighted the cruelty of the crime by Takanori Hoshijima, presenting unusually vivid crime scene images at the Tokyo District Court, presiding Judge Kiichi Hiraide determined the slaying was not premeditated and capital punishment was not merited.