Blackston
I’ve had requests from all over for a synopsis what happened in Tokyo that led to the death of Nicola Furlong. Nicola and her friend, let’s call her ”S”, were Irish nationals on an exchange program to a Japanese school for their third year. On Wednesday, May 23rd, Nicola tweeted her parents that she was looking forward to going to the Nicki Minaj concert in Tokyo with “S” and they were hoping to go to the after party. Both young women went to the concert and at some point after the concert realized they had missed the last train back to their campus. Partying on, they met two men. James Blackston and Richard Hinds. Details here are a bit murky. Most reports agree that they were in a club  in a part of Tokyo called Shibuya where the alcohol flows and drugs are readily available. The foursome were social with other partiers. There is one claim that one of the girls was seen partying with “some white guy” and got very intoxicated while associating with him. Another report states that both Hinds and Blackston were drinking and carousing with other women.The relevance of this part of the story is that it is not unusual for young women to have their drinks spiked in this part of town. Any number of people that the girls were socializing with could have spiked their drinks, or they may simply have been offered something to try. Blackston and Hinds may also have had an opportunity to partake in drug use at the club. Some reports indicate that the girls were very disoriented at the club. Eventually, two girls left in a cab with Blackston and Hinds to go to their hotel room.

The two men are both being held in Japan currently on charges of “quasi-forcible indecency” which essentially means they groped one or both of the women while they were in a state of extreme intoxication and unable to resist. These charges stem from the taxi ride.


Hinds

Once in the hotel “S” went to Blackston’s room and Nicola went to Hinds room. Again we have two reports as to what occurred. I tend to believe perhaps both things happened. First, around 3:06 am someone in a neighboring room called the front desk to report noise disturbance coming from Hinds room. It has also been reported that Hinds called the front desk himself around 3:20 am stating that Nicola was not breathing and requesting medical assistance. An ambulance was called and Nicola was pronounced dead.

Later that day, Hinds willingly went with police to be interrogated but because detectives couldn’t keep him in custody without charge for more than 72 hours, they provisionally charged him and Blackston with “quasi-forcible indecency” two days later. Inspectors can keep a person on that holding charge for 23 days then the person needs to be released or formally charged. The 23 day mark is Friday.

Nicola’s father returned from Japan very recently. He spent several days speaking to the Japanese authorities regarding the death of his daughter. He seems to indicate that the case is focused on Hinds and the investigators have a strong case. He was also asked for input on sentencing. It seems probable at this point that Hinds will be charged in the death. Blackston will either be formally charged in the taxi incident or released. It has been reported that the taxi incident was captured on the taxi’s surveillance camera. It remains unclear if Blackston will be implicated in any way for the death of Nicola.

The official police statement said that Nicola died by suffocation through cervical compression. This is widely reported as strangulation in the press. However, the same cause of death could occur from a fall on the neck or as more salacious news media has mentioned, rough sex play.

Hinds, who has only recently been identified in the US media is a keyboardist from Memphis. He was traveling with his brother and some other Memphis musicians as part of Japanese Hip-Hop artist AI’s tour. Blackston was a backup dancer with the tour. Recent reports out of Memphis indicate Hinds was very active in his church and very highly thought of in the community. Family and friends are adamant that he is innocent. Hinds has no previous criminal record in Shelby County.

Update: A new report out of Japan says that Hinds admits to grabbing Nicola’s neck, but he didn’t intend to kill her.  If this report is true, he might as well plead guilty and save everyone a lot of heartache. What a sad story this is.

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