Wife charged in slay of Japanese trader

The Parañaque City police filed yesterday before the city prosecutor’s office parricide charges against the wife of the Japanese businessman who was shot dead in his sleep last month.

Inspector Glenn Ticzon, chief of the Station Investigation Division (SID), said police evidence against Carmelita Murokami, 52, and several John Does "are enough for the case to stand in court."

The husband, Hiroo Murokami, 58, was lying in bed when he was shot six times by at least two assailants inside his Levitown, Better Living Subdivision home last May 7. He was also stabbed near his right armpit.

Carmelita said she was asleep on the floor and did not hear gunshots inside their bedroom, a statement that baffled the police. Investigators said money was the motive behind the trader’s killing.

Requesting anonymity, an investigator said that before he was killed, Murokami had been transferring his assets under the name of Artemio Hiro, his 19-year-old son with Carmelita.

The investigator said that apart from an export business, Murokami owned two commercial buildings and the Levitown home estimated to be P10 million.

He added police cannot give Murokami’s estimated net worth because the Bank Secrecy Law prevents them from checking his accounts. Ticzon said the case against Carmelita was based on circumstantial evidence.

Among these are her refusal to undergo a paraffin test and a lie-detector test as well as several inconsistencies in her statements.

The couple’s son and six other members of the household had taken the test. Carmelita’s two other sons from a previous marriage also refused to take the paraffin test.

Crime scene investigators of the Southern Police District also claimed physical evidence had been tampered.