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View Full Version : Soldier from '95 Okinawa rape kills self & another victim


JonInMiddleGA
08-23-2006, 12:38 AM
I wouldn't have recognized the name off-hand, but I do remember the original case from more than 10 years ago.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/stories/0822ksu.html
A Kennesaw State University junior was killed by a former U.S. Marine convicted in 1996 of charges stemming from the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Japan, authorities said Tuesday. The ex-Marine, they believe, took his own life hours later.

Investigators said 22-year-old Lauren Careen Cooper was sexually assaulted and died of blunt force trauma to the head at her off-campus apartment.

They identified her killer as Kendrick Ledet of Smyrna, whom they believe took his own life hours later. He died of self-inflicted cuts to his inner elbow area, said Brian Frist, Cobb County medical examiner.

Investigators said Cooper's parents found her body about 7:20 p.m. Sunday after they went to her apartment to check on her.
...
Cooper and Ledet were former co-workers, said Officer Michael Brock of the Kennesaw Police Department. Brock said police were investigating the nature of their relationship. He said they have ruled out the possibility that Ledet forced his way into Cooper's apartment.
...
Ledet was one of three U.S. servicemen convicted in the 1995 abduction and rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl. The crime drew outrage in Japan against the U.S. military presence there. Ledet was convicted of charges of abduction and violence.

While the other two servicemen received seven-year prison sentences, Ledet was sentenced to six and a half years. Ledet said he tried to stop the sexual assault when he saw the victim's youth, according to press reports. He was convicted on charges of abduction and violence but not rape.

Ledet admitted to participating in the assault and said that on the orders of Navy Seaman Marcus Gill he "attempted to rape her," according to the Chicago Sun-Times, but changed his mind.

SackAttack
08-23-2006, 01:09 AM
Hurray, recidivism.

Crapshoot
08-23-2006, 09:23 AM
Its somewhat amazing that a rape by an American in Japan is considered less serious than one in the US - 7 years would have elicted screams of bloody murder here.

Wolfpack
08-23-2006, 09:28 AM
I think it was done by the military. As I recall, there was a lot of uproar among the Japanese, particularly on Okinawa where it happened, because the military wasn't allowing them to be tried in a Japanese court.

JonInMiddleGA
08-23-2006, 10:28 AM
Actually, they were tried in Japanese courts on Okinawa.

Here's one of many references online
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp960307/03070436.htm

An interesting quote in that article, btw,
" The sentences, tough by Japanese standards, will be served in Yokosuka prison, just south of Tokyo."

Wolfpack
08-23-2006, 10:34 AM
Actually, they were tried in Japanese courts on Okinawa.

Here's one of many references online
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp960307/03070436.htm

An interesting quote in that article, btw,
" The sentences, tough by Japanese standards, will be served in Yokosuka prison, just south of Tokyo."

Ah, okay. I might be getting a couple of similar incidents mixed up, then. Could swear there was at least one incident that caused outrage because we wouldn't let the soldiers be tried by the locals. Phillipines, maybe?