In a harrowing case that reached its conclusion this week, an Arizona woman, Yui Inoue, was convicted for the brutal slaying of her two young children, aged 9 and 7, with a meat cleaver typically used for butchering animal bones. The prosecution argued during the closing statements on Monday that the children, Mia and Kai Inoue, were asleep when their mother assaulted them with the weapon.
The jury in Maricopa County found Inoue, 44, guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of child abuse. The latter charges were tied to a prior investigation by the Arizona Department of Child Safety and the murders of Mia and Kai Inoue, which took place in May 2021.
The prosecution revealed that Inoue alleged to have heard voices commanding her to kill her children. After the horrific act, she called 911 and sought out law enforcement officers at a substation near Arizona State University. Primarily communicating in Japanese, she admitted to the officers about the killings. When law enforcement arrived at her residence, they found the mutilated bodies of her children.
Inoue later informed the police that she woke up around 4:30 a.m. with blood on her hands and discovered her children dead and bloodied near a doorway. She then bathed and came to grips with the violent act she had perpetrated. Her defense lawyers argued that Inoue had no memory of the murders. Tempe police reportedly discovered a blood-drenched meat cleaver in the vehicle Inoue used to drive to the police station.
During her closing arguments, Maricopa County prosecutor Shaylee Beasley painted a gruesome picture, stating that Inoue attempted to decapitate her children. Beasley detailed how Inoue repeatedly assaulted the children as they tried to protect their heads. She also showed close-up images of the children’s injuries to the jury and suggested that their deaths were connected to a contentious divorce Inoue was undergoing with their father.
Inoue was absent from the courtroom as she had relinquished her right to be present. Her lawyer, Rebecca Felmly, argued that there was sufficient reasonable doubt for the jury to exonerate Inoue. During her initial court appearance in 2021, Inoue, through a Japanese interpreter, denied killing anyone.
Felmly also questioned the force necessary to inflict the injuries on the children, likening it to a guillotine. She argued that Inoue, a petite woman, lacked the strength to cause such damage. Felmly also noted that none of the neighbors from the seven other apartments in the building reported hearing or seeing anything unusual.
The child abuse charges against Inoue stemmed from a report filed by her husband in March 2021, just months before the murders. He reported that Inoue had taken their son Kai and their whereabouts were unknown. Police later located Inoue and Kai behind a convenience store. Inoue was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and Kai was returned to his father.
Despite the report, Department of Child Safety investigators found no visible signs of abuse or neglect on the children and did not remove them from the home. Inoue now faces a potential life sentence for her crimes and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 21.