Mom Discovered Responsible of Butchering Her Younger Kids with Meat Cleaver Amid Divorce: Jury

A mom from Tempe, Arizona didn’t seem in court docket on Monday, as a substitute studying {that a} jury had discovered her responsible from her jail cell. This after she maintained her innocence within the brutal murders of her two younger kids.

The Maricopa County jury solely deliberated for a short while, based on AZ Household, earlier than rendering their verdict towards Yui Inoue, 44, on two counts of first-degree homicide, two counts of kid abuse, and two counts of disorderly conduct within the deaths of her 9- and 7-year-old kids.

The prosecution within the case argued that Inoue dedicated the murders to get again at her husband over monetary frustrations amid their upcoming divorce. However the protection argued that this “very tiny very barely constructed girl” was incapable of committing the brutally violent assaults.

It was Might 15, 2021, simply after 7 a.m. when Inoue reportedly went to the Tempe police station, based on a report from ABC affiliate KNXV on the time — and advised them she was listening to voices telling her to kill her kids.

When police then went to research, they made a horrific discovery.

This discovery got here simply hours after a home dispute had referred to as police to her residence at 12:30 a.m., with Arizona Household noting that the kids, Mia, 9, and Kai, 7, have been alive and of their beds when police visited the house then.

The dispute was between Inoue and her husband, although nobody was arrested. Police as a substitute ordered the couple to separate at the moment.

When police spoke with the husband later, he mentioned he had left the home round 3 a.m. and slept in his automobile on the parking zone of the financial institution the place he labored. This got here after Inoue allegedly threatened to stab him following a heated argument over cash she demanded for a deliberate transfer to Japan amid their divorce, as reported by NBC affiliate KPNX on the time.

The couple had filed for divorce in April 2021 and have been residing in separate rooms within the house.

When authorities returned to the unit later that morning after Inoue had made contact with them a second time, the kids have been lifeless. Police reported discovering a meat cleaver with bloodstains inside a bag within the car Inoue used to drive to the police station. Inoue had blood and lacerations on her physique, whereas there have been blood stains within the automobile, per police.

The kids have been discovered with “vital accidents to their our bodies, together with quite a few lacerations, incised wounds and a few amputations in step with a violent assault and defensive wounds,” based on Tempe Police spokesperson Sgt. Steven Carbajal on the time, per Fox affiliate KSAZ.

They reported that the kids’s our bodies have been underneath a blanket and containers close to their bed room doorway, “which appeared to have been used to minimally conceal them.”

Inoue reportedly advised police she went to sleep with the kids. She then mentioned she wakened at 4:30 a.m. to seek out blood on her fingers and arms and her kids lifeless. She took a shower and that is when she she mentioned she lastly “wakened” to what had occurred.

Inoue then drove to the police station. She reportedly advised them she didn’t consider she had killed her kids and couldn’t keep in mind doing so.

Police paperwork additional claimed, per KNXV, that this wasn’t the primary time Inoue had allegedly perpetrated violence on her kids, detailing an unreported incident the place she purportedly stabbed her son with scissors.

The Arizona Division of Baby Security launched an announcement shortly after her arrest in 2021, per the outlet, that mentioned they’d an open investigation into Inoue after a March 2 report that she had disappeared with one of many kids.

That little one was recovered, with Inoue going to a psychiatric hospital and the kid to their father. DCS decided no proof of abuse or neglect and felt the kids have been secure with their dad and mom, however the investigation was nonetheless open on the time of her arrest.

“Mia and Kai Inoue have been sleeping soundly of their beds when their very own mom got here into their bed room holding a knife,” the prosecution argued in court docket. “A meat cleaver, that’s actually designed to chop the bones of animals. And he or she attacked them with it.”

The prosecution advised the jury that Inoue “needed to assume, she needed to act, and there’s nothing unclear or speculative about any of that.” They pushed that the very fact she killed her kids back-to-back confirmed premeditation.

“We’re right here as a result of this girl tried to decapitate two souls,” mentioned prosecutor Shaylee Beasely throughout closing arguments, per the Arizona Republic. She described the brutality of the assaults, with the assailant delivering “chop after chop” as the kids “tried to guard their heads.”

The jury was proven close-up pictures of the accidents inflicted on the kids, exhibiting dozens of chop wounds and associated accidents.

Rebecca Felmly, Inoue’s protection legal professional, countered this narrative, arguing there was sufficient affordable doubt within the case. From her first court docket look in 2021 the place she advised the choose “I didn’t kill anyone” via an interpreter,” Inoue has maintained her innocence.

She used the medical expert’s report as a key piece of her case, citing that the report “likened the quantity of pressure to a guillotine,” per Legislation & Crime, in reference to the deadly wounds.

“She is a really tiny, very slightly-built girl,” Felmly argued to the jury. “She doesn’t have the vitality, the ability, or the power to trigger that kind of damage to these youngsters.”

She additionally famous that there are seven different flats within the constructing the place the household lived, and but, “No person noticed or heard something. In the event that they did, the state would have referred to as them [to testify].”

After the responsible verdict, Inoue faces a attainable life sentence for the murders of her kids, together with her sentencing scheduled for March 21.