The Nagoya High Court upheld a lower court's death...

The Nagoya High Court upheld a lower court's death sentence for a man convicted of two separate murder-robbery cases in Shizuoka and Aichi prefectures in 1996 and 1997.
Presiding Judge Nobuaki Horiuchi, upholding the death sentence for Yoshimi Toyoda, 58, of the town of Shimizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, said, "His criminal liability is extremely serious and he is beyond redemption."
Lawyers for Toyoda said their client would appeal.
According to the ruling, Toyoda in August 1996 killed Kazuko Nakano, then 44, in her house in the town of Kannami in Shizuoka Prefecture by drugging her with a massive amount of stimulant. He then withdrew about 10 million yen of her deposit notes.
In September 1997, he shot to death bar owner Hide Shinoda, then 62, in Aichi Prefecture to avoid paying back 4.2 million yen and later stole about 60,000 yen in cash, the ruling said.