Speaking at his sentencing, Kiyoshi Higashi first claimed that no one knew who pulled the trigger in what has become known as the Craigslist murder. He then went on to say he looked Jim Sanders in the eye and prayed for him before he shot him.
Higashi was sentenced Friday to 109 years for killing Sanders in front of his family after responding to a jewelry ad on Craigslist.
In addressing the court, Higashi said his prison sentence didn't matter because only "God can judge." After he called the judge a racist he then said he looked Sanders in the eye and told him he was praying for both of them before pulling the trigger.
"I really don't give a f*** what kind of you sentence you give me," Higashi told the judge just before he was sentenced. "Because either way, I'm gonna still be in prison. And either way I'm gonna be happy. And either way, that man is still dead. And I looked at him in the eyes and I told him I prayed for the both of us before I killed him."
"What he said about my husband, in looking at him dead after he shot him, I lost it," said Sanders wife, Charlene, after the sentencing. "I mean, I've already got so many visions in my head I'm trying to get rid of."
During his trial, Higashi claimed he did pull out a weapon at one point but that he wasn't the trigger man.
Sanders, 43, was shot when Higashi and three others forced their way into his home and tied up and assaulted Sanders, his wife and their two sons.
After the sentencing, Sander's wife Charlene Sanders said she considers Higashi "evil."
"It was like sitting with Satan in there. And I really mean that, when I say my husband was such a loving man and he did want to see people come to Christ," Sanders wife said. "And as hard as it is to believe, if he actually repented, truly repented, I can see my husband shaking his hand up in heaven."
