PHOENIX (TCN) — A 44-year-old woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for killing her 7-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter with a meat cleaver four years ago.
The Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office announced in a statement May 2 that Yui Inoue received two consecutive life sentences following her conviction in February for two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse, and one count of disorderly conduct for the deaths of Kai Inoue and Mia Inoue. She was also ordered to spend 35 years in prison for the last two charges.
On May 15, 2021, at around 12:30 a.m., Tempe Police Department officers responded to Inoue’s home for a domestic disturbance because she and her husband were reportedly disagreeing about finances before she moved back to Japan. The husband reportedly left their apartment because she “became aggressive and used a meat cleaver to destroy his computer and other electronics.” The responding officers reportedly saw the two children sleeping, and they left.
Soon after, Inoue reportedly went to her children’s room and “held each child down on the floor while she delivered dozens of blows with the meat cleaver.”
When her children were dead, Inoue reportedly took a shower, put her clothes in a trash bag, washed the knife, and packed a bag with her passport, jewelry, and cash. Inoue covered her son’s and daughter’s bodies with mattresses and blankets, then fled the apartment. Inoue took herself to the Tempe Police Department, where she told an officer that she “heard voices telling her that she killed her kids, and she saw some blood.”
Police went back to the house and discovered the victims deceased.
According to the Arizona Republic, one of the prosecutors said in court, “A very conservative guess about the number of times she struck her children with a meat cleaver is 100.”
Inoue reportedly told the judge at her sentencing, “My children are not dead. My parents have them. They are spending their time with my parents. I love my children very much. So it’s very strange. My children are with my parents.”
KTVK-TV reports Judge Jeffrey Rueter said, “Words can’t adequately describe what occurred. I can’t imagine what those children went through in their last minutes. The fear, the pain, the suffering, it’s incomprehensible.”