U.S. sailor gets life and fine in slaying

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YOKOHAMA, Japan, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- A U.S. Navy sailor serving a life sentence for the murder of a taxi driver must also pay the victim's family about $593,000, a Japanese judge said.

American taxpayers could end up paying the family of Masaaki Takahashi if his killer, Olatunbosun Ugbogu, is unable to pay, Kyodo News reported Thursday.

Ugbogu, 24, was convicted of stabbing the taxi driver with a kitchen knife in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture, in March 2008, then fleeing with his fares.

''With the victim stabbed from behind all of a sudden, the pain and fear he experienced just before his death was enormous,'' Judge Akiko Kawamoto said, awarding Takahashi's family the full amount sought.

An agreement between the United States and Japan holds the military responsible for damages in cases where the convicted person cannot pay, the report said.