US sailor convicted in stabbing in Japan

TOKYO - A Japanese court found a U.S. sailor guilty of stabbing two Japanese women near Tokyo last year and sentenced him to eight years in prison, officials said Thursday.

Sailor Joshua David Williams, 20, was convicted of attempted murder in the ruling at the Yokohama District Court, court official Yoshie Ueki said.

Williams, a sailor based at a large U.S. Navy facility in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo, was accused of stabbing a 17-year-old girl and a 27-year-old woman in his off-base apartment in July, 2007. The sailor stabbed the teenager in the stomach, causing serious injury, and slashed the other woman's back.

The court refused to say whether Williams had pleaded guilty or innocent to the attempted murder charge. Local newspapers have reported that Williams said he never intended to kill the women.

Prosecutors had asked for a 10-year sentence. Japanese law on attempted murder has no clear-cut sentencing guidelines, instead leaving it up to prosecutors to seek penalties based on severity of the attack.

U.S. military officials were not immediately available for comment.

Thursday's ruling was the latest in a series of criminal cases recently involving U.S. servicemen. Three Marines were sentenced to prison by separate rulings by a U.S. court martial in May and early June for gang-raping a Japanese woman in Hiroshima.

About 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under a bilateral security pact. Many Japanese complain of crime, pollution and noise associated with the U.S. bases.

Japanese anger over the U.S. military presence has grown following an alleged rape in February of a 14-year-old girl by an American serviceman on the southern island of Okinawa, as well as the killing of a taxi driver near the Yokosuka base.

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