Japanese prosecutors charge US marine suspected of robbing and killing woman

Prosecutors in Japan have filed formal charges against a US marine suspected of murdering and robbing a woman while stationed on the country’s island of Okinawa, according to Japanese media.

Devin Jacob Ballard, a 20-year-old lance corporal assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, is charged with fatally strangling Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in the city and stealing from her a backpack containing a wallet, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

Ballard had initially been arrested in Yagi’s killing on 4 October, about a day after she was found dead in Naha, Okinawa’s capital. Prosecutors indicted him in the