He didn’t show any signs of “desperation” throughout his more than seven months of detention here, according to Gregory Castro, the director of the Department of Corrections. “There was no indication that he was suicidal.”
Castro allowed some Japanese reporters and the Variety to view Kazuyoshi Miura’s cell at the local corrections facility yesterday morning.
Miura stayed alone in Medium Security Housing Unit 132 since his arrest at the Saipan International Airport on Feb. 22 based on a 1988 warrant of arrest issued against him on the charge that he plotted the death in 1981 of his then 28-year-old wife Kazumi.
Castro said Miura didn’t ask to be alone in a cell but the department sensed that he wanted privacy as the only Japanese detainee.
There are 24 cells — 12 down and 12 on the loft — around Miura’s unit.
All of its occupants are facing trials for different crimes.
Miura’s 35 sq. ft. cell has a stainless sink, a toilet, a small bunk bed and a mirror.
No one has occupied Miura’s cell since he left it at predawn on Oct. 10 for Los Angeles.
His Corrections-issued medium-size Bob Barker Tristitch red shirt and matching pants were neatly folded on the edge of his bed near the door which has a small glass window.
Castro said detainees are allowed to mingle with each other from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
But Miura always wanted to be left alone and was seen either writing or reading.
Prisoners are allowed to use pens but jail guards confiscate them after use for security reasons.
Local jail guards said what happened to Miura, 61, in L.A. is unfortunate.
The LAPD said Miura hanged himself with a piece of his shirt inside the detention facility.
Castro said it is impossible for anyone to commit suicide at the Saipan jail facility.
“Here, we make sure that there’s no hanging point [for any inmate]. Miura was well-behaved. He didn’t give us any problems,” he said.
Miura’s family is still waiting for the LAPD to release the autopsy report.
Bruce Berline, Miura’s lead counsel in Saipan, said he was shocked by his client’s sudden death.
He described Miura as logical and upbeat when they last spoke.
Miura, he added, was looking forward to winning his conspiracy case in L.A.
Japan acquitted Miura of murder in 1998 in connection with the 1981 fatal shooting of his wife in L.A.
The assailant who shot his wife in the head was never found.
