A U.S. Navy Sailor was sentenced to 30 months in prison for raping a female Japanese tourist on the southern island of Okinawa.
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Seamen Justin Castellanos, 24, was sentenced Friday in district court in the capital of Okinawa, Naha, according to Japanese media reports. Justin Castellanos is also required to pay $21,789 to the victim and the U.S. military has to pay an additional $2,842.
Castellano will serve his term doing hard labor at the Yokosuka Prison where other military personnel are locked up.
Castellanos was arrested in March for allegedly raping a tourist from Fukuoka on the mainland while she was unconscious sitting in the hallway of an Okinawa hotel where he was staying on the night of March 13.
At the time, Castellanos was stationed at a U.S. Marine Corps Base, Camp Schwab. Okinawa makes up for roughly 75% of the space allotted for United States bases on Japan and makes up about half of the 50,000 troops in Japan.
Tensions between the United States and Japan have been high because of crimes by American military and civilian personnel on Okinawa. Former U.S. Marine Kenneth Shinzato was arrested in May for raping and killing a 20 year-old woman whose body was found in a wooded area. Mass protests were formed by the the people of Okinawa following the rape cases and anti-U.S. base sentiment has been high.
According to media reports, prosecutors wanted a four year term, but the court decided on a more lenient sentence of only 30 months.
