Tempe mother sentenced to life in prison for murder of 2 children
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A Tempe mother will spend the rest of her life behind bars for murdering her two children with a meat cleaver in 2021.
Yui Inoue, 44, was sentenced on Friday to two consecutive life sentences for the murders. She also received two 20-year sentences to be served consecutively for two other charges.
Before the punishment was handed down, the judge said it was one of the toughest cases he’s ever had. “Words can’t adequately describe what occurred,” said Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Rueter. “I can’t imagine what those children went through in their last minutes, the fear, the pain, the suffering. It’s incomprehensible.”
Inoue said through an interpreter that her two children are not dead. “They are spending time with my parents,” she said. “I love my children very much so it’s very strange. My children are with my parents.”
The mental health of Inoue has been brought up many times during the case. She told officers she heard voices when she murdered her two kids.
On May 14, 2021, Tempe police responded to an apartment after Inoue’s husband called 911 to report that Inoue was screaming and holding a kitchen knife. He said she had threatened to stab him during an argument over money.
No one had been hurt and their two children were still asleep in their beds, so officers left. After the incident, Inoue’s husband reportedly left and slept elsewhere in his car.
At 7:30 a.m. the following day, court documents say Inoue showed up at a Tempe police station and told officers she was hearing voices telling her to kill her children. Police then went back to the apartment and found a boy and a girl dead, covered with trash, boxes and a mattress.
A police report said the children, 9-year-old Mia and 7-year-old Kai, had multiple cuts, other wounds and “some amputations.”
“The number of injuries suffered by each one of these children was too many to count,” a prosecutor said when her trial began last month.
The trial lasted two weeks, but the jury deliberated only a short time before finding Inoue guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse and one count of disorderly conduct.
In documents filed, the state asked the judge to impose consecutive life sentences. Below is an excerpt from that memorandum:
“The children were helpless, sleeping, and completely at the mercy of their own mother who showed none. These deaths were physically painful and emotionally torturous. The first responders, detectives, crime scene specialists, and medical examiner are permanently traumatized by the injuries inflicted on these children. The children’s friends, school teachers, and Tempe community were harmed by such a horrific event. There is no mitigation that warrants anything less than consecutive, presumptive terms for these crimes.”
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