Mother Found Guilty of Butchering Her Young Children with Meat Cleaver Amid Divorce: Jury

A mother from Tempe, Arizona did not appear in court on Monday, instead learning that a jury had found her guilty from her jail cell. This after she maintained her innocence in the brutal murders of her two young children.

The Maricopa County jury only deliberated for a short time, according to AZ Family, before rendering their verdict against Yui Inoue, 44, on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse, and two counts of disorderly conduct in the deaths of her 9- and 7-year-old children.

The prosecution in the case argued that Inoue committed the murders to get back at her husband over financial frustrations amid their upcoming divorce. But the defense argued that this "very tiny very slightly built woman" was incapable of committing the brutally violent attacks.

It was May 15, 2021, just after 7 a.m. when Inoue reportedly went to the Tempe police station, according to a report from ABC affiliate KNXV at the time -- and told them she was hearing voices telling her to kill her children.

When police then went to investigate, they made a horrific discovery.

This discovery came just hours after a domestic dispute had called police to her residence at 12:30 a.m., with Arizona Family noting that the children, Mia, 9, and Kai, 7, were alive and in their beds when police visited the apartment then.

The dispute was between Inoue and her husband, though no one was arrested. Police instead ordered the couple to separate at that time.

When police spoke with the husband later, he said he had left the house around 3 a.m. and slept in his car at the parking lot of the bank where he worked. This came after Inoue allegedly threatened to stab him following a heated argument over money she demanded for a planned move to Japan amid their divorce, as reported by NBC affiliate KPNX at the time.

The couple had filed for divorce in April 2021 and were living in separate rooms in the apartment.

When authorities returned to the unit later that morning after Inoue had made contact with them a second time, the children were dead. Police reported finding a meat cleaver with bloodstains inside a bag in the vehicle Inoue used to drive to the police station. Inoue had blood and lacerations on her body, while there were blood stains in the car, per police.

The children were found with "significant injuries to their bodies, including numerous lacerations, incised wounds and some amputations consistent with a violent attack and defensive wounds," according to Tempe Police spokesperson Sgt. Steven Carbajal at the time, per Fox affiliate KSAZ.

They reported that the children's bodies were under a blanket and boxes near their bedroom doorway, "which appeared to have been used to minimally conceal them."

Inoue reportedly told police she went to sleep with the children. She then said she woke up at 4:30 a.m. to find blood on her hands and arms and her children dead. She took a bath and that's when she she said she finally "woke up" to what had happened.

Inoue then drove to the police station. She reportedly told them she did not believe she had killed her children and could not remember doing so.

Police documents further claimed, per KNXV, that this wasn't the first time Inoue had allegedly perpetrated violence on her children, detailing an unreported incident where she purportedly stabbed her son with scissors.

The Arizona Department of Child Safety released a statement shortly after her arrest in 2021, per the outlet, that said they had an open investigation into Inoue after a March 2 report that she had disappeared with one of the children.

That child was recovered, with Inoue going to a psychiatric hospital and the child to their father. DCS determined no evidence of abuse or neglect and felt the children were safe with their parents, but the investigation was still open at the time of her arrest.

"Mia and Kai Inoue were sleeping soundly in their beds when their own mother came into their bedroom holding a knife," the prosecution argued in court. "A meat cleaver, that is literally designed to cut the bones of animals. And she attacked them with it."

The prosecution told the jury that Inoue "had to think, she had to act, and there’s nothing unclear or speculative about any of that." They pushed that the fact she killed her children back-to-back showed premeditation.

"We are here because this woman tried to decapitate two souls," said prosecutor Shaylee Beasely during closing arguments, per the Arizona Republic. She described the brutality of the attacks, with the assailant delivering "chop after chop" as the children "tried to protect their heads."

The jury was shown close-up photos of the injuries inflicted on the children, showing dozens of chop wounds and related injuries.

Rebecca Felmly, Inoue's defense attorney, countered this narrative, arguing there was enough reasonable doubt in the case. From her first court appearance in 2021 where she told the judge "I did not kill anybody" through an interpreter," Inoue has maintained her innocence.

She used the medical examiner's report as a key piece of her case, citing that the report "likened the amount of force to a guillotine," per Law & Crime, in reference to the fatal wounds.

"She is a very tiny, very slightly-built woman," Felmly argued to the jury. "She doesn’t have the energy, the power, or the strength to cause that type of injury to those kids."

She also noted that there are seven other apartments in the building where the family lived, and yet, "Nobody saw or heard anything. If they did, the state would have called them [to testify]."

After the guilty verdict, Inoue faces a possible life sentence for the murders of her children, with her sentencing scheduled for March 21.