James Noboru Takane

Sources

1. Seniors in the slammer | Age carries little weight when the elderly are prosecuted, sentenced, Herald Journal (Logan, Utah), September 22, 2002.
2. Aloha! Locals enjoy first Utah Ukulele Festival, Herald Journal (Logan, Utah), August 9, 2013.
3. James Noboru Takane, FamilySearch, October 1, 2025.

• 1. Seniors in the slammer | Age carries little weight when the elderly are prosecuted, sentenced

  • 22 Sep 2002
  • News article
  • Herald Journal (Logan, Utah)

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  The golden years of life ideally provide senior citizens the opportunity to travel, spend time with family and friends and contemplate fond memories of years gone by.

  However, all the golden years can offer older folks in trouble with the law is time behind bars thinking about the crime that put them there and reflecting on the harm they have caused themselves, their victims and society.

  In the last 10 months, four men over the age of 70 have been prosecuted in Cache Valley for committing felony crimes.

  Clarence Stucki, a 93-year-old Logan man, was sentenced last December to one year of probation and ordered to pay restitution of ,5,000 to the city of Logan for stealing nearly ,83,000 in utility services over more than 60 years.

  In July, a 71-year-old Logan man, James Takane, was sentenced to 90 days in the Cache County Jail for molesting a 9-year-old girl at his home last year.

  Reflecting the severity of the case, an 83-year-old Hyrum man, Lloyd Owens, was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison last February for the repeated sexual abuse of a young girl between 1989 and 1994. The girl was reportedly 7 years old when the abuse started.

  And, at the age of 96, Bert Jackson of Lewiston is the oldest local man in recent history to be convicted of criminal felony charges. Jackson pleaded guilty in August to two counts of second-degree felony sexual abuse of a child. If sentenced to consecutive terms, Jackson could potentially spend up to 30 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October.

  In Cache County, old age and physically disabilities tend to play a minor role when it comes to prosecuting and sentencing the elderly. Cache County Attorney Scott Wyatt has already announced that he plans to recommend Jackson be sentenced to prison instead of jail.

  "We have somebody that's very, very, old,"

  Wyatt said. "Somebody that's probably too old to be thinking about rehabilitation and probably somebody that's so old you might think there's little point in prison. But what we believe we have is somebody who has molested a large number of girls over generations of time and there shouldn't be an exemption for punishment, restitution, protection of the community, all those things, just because he's old."

  Several law enforcement authorities spoke recently to the Herald Journal about guidelines used to prosecute and sentence senior citizens.

  Cache County Deputy Attorney Don Linton said he agrees with Wyatt's sentencing stance.

  "If you've got somebody that's 80 years old and they're abusing children … you have to ask yourself, 'What is going to help them change that behavior?'" Linton said. "If they haven't figured it out before they're 80 and if you have a concern that they might do this to other kids, it strikes me that maybe that 80-year-old is the one person who should go to prison."

  Linton, like Wyatt, has prosecuted many criminal cases involving senior citizens over the years.

  "We look at the seriousness of the crime and we ask ourselves, 'What can we do to try and rehabilitate this person and keep the community safe?'" Linton said. "Those are the two big things."

  During the penalty phase of a case, judges rely on pre-sentence reports, created by the Adult Parole and Probation Department, to help determine an individual's proper sentence. Each report, or PSI, provides the judge with information that includes a defendant's life history and criminal past, his or her educational background, an employment history and relevant substance abuse problems. Additionally, the report includes a victim's impact statement, a police narrative describing the crime and other relevant factors in the case.

  According to 1st District court Judge Thomas Willmore, old age and physical disabilities are not considered mitigating factors during the sentencing phase of a case.

  "We can't as judges … look at the fact that they are sick or they're old," Willmore said. "From the justice stand point there still needs to be punishment and there still needs to be deterrence, both specific and general. And that general deterrence would be gone if I said to an old guy 'I'm not going to send you to jail because you're old.' Then every old offender could look at that and say 'well it's all right to offend'."

  In fact, Linton said, some senior citizen defendants try and use their age or a physical disability to persuade the court to have mercy on them.

  "Some folks will use their age or their physical problems as a mechanism to cheat, lie and steal," Linton said.

  It is important to make sure potentially dangerous criminals, regardless of age, cannot reoffend or hurt other victims, Linton continued.

  "From experience we've learned that you really have to watch the child sex offenders, for example," he said. "You have to also watch some of the people who commit violent offenses; because if they'll do that once, there's a better chance that they'll do it twice."

  Senior citizens, like other inmates sent to jail or prison on felony sex abuse charges, are required to participate in sex offender rehabilitation programs.

  "If an old guy is sent to prison (on sex abuse charges) he has to go through the sex offender program just like anyone else," Willmore said. "So they're getting the help and they're getting the counseling."

  As for housing and caring for sick and elderly inmates, state prisons and the Cache County Jail are reportedly equipped to handle their needs.

  "If someone's really sick, we have them under a doctor's care or a nurse's care," Cache County Jail Lt. Kim Cheshire said. "… We (can also) decide to take them and put them in the hospital under armed guard."

  The concern that senior citizens will become victims themselves while in jail or prison bears upon prosecutors and judges, but it is not detrimental when it comes to doling out justice.

  "You always worry about (that)," Willmore said. "No matter who you send to prison, you always worry about that. But it cannot guide your decision. It just can't. You have to look at all the criteria and weigh things out."

  Linton said prison is actually a safer place for criminals than most people think.

  "I think that the prison is much better at keeping people safe than the media and a lot of other folks portray," Linton said. "It's not the 'Shawshank Redemption'."

  Inmates that get attacked in jail or in prison are usually people that are looking for trouble in the first place, Linton said.

  "I don't think that an elderly person is nearly at as much risk because an elderly person isn't going to go out and cause all kinds of problems…. The prisons, and I know our (Cache County) jail, do a real good job at keeping these people safe."

  1st District Court Judge Clint S. Judkins is scheduled to sentence 96-year-old Jackson on Oct. 15.

• 2. Aloha! Locals enjoy first Utah Ukulele Festival

  • 9 Aug 2013
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  • Herald Journal (Logan, Utah)

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  The friendly, laid-back aloha spirit attracted a few dozen Cache Valley residents to the first Utah Ukulele Festival.

  [...]

  Friday afternoon, a senior citizen approached a woman in her late teens as she prepared to play her scheduled set onstage. Though she usually performed alone at the festival, this time she brought her new friend along and they played an improvised duet.

  After he returned from the stage, the man introduced himself as Jim Takane of North Logan, born and raised in Hawaii.

  “They call me Jiji. Old man. Eighty-three this year,” Takane said. “JiJi means grandpa.”

  He didn’t know the woman he played onstage with before he met her at the festival. “You know, we got together here in a couple of minutes and said, ‘you play this, I’ll play that.’”

  Their duet wasn’t planned, but they both enjoyed it.

  “I brought my old ukulele,” Takane said, motioning to the instrument on the picnic table behind him. “It’s a Martin. M-A-R-T-I-N. It’s like the Stradivarius, you know? It’s about 70 years old.”

  Takane said he read about the Utah Ukulele Festival in the newspaper and couldn’t pass it up. He dusted off his uke and came to see who turned up for a Hawaiian-themed festival in Cache Valley.

  “Because, well, Hawaii’s my home,” he said, his voice trailing off. “Anyway, I love it. Anything Hawaiian, you know?”

  Takane started talking about the feeling of the festival — the inclusiveness, the relaxing atmosphere. He’d really like to see more events sharing the aloha spirit, he said. His wife appeared at his side and tugged on his sleeve. As he was getting ready to leave, he said he’d like to see a new Hawaiian association in the valley, one that taught ukulele and hula.

  “It’d be nice to have somebody who could talk about Hawaii and the old days, and teach about culture,” he said.

  Takane, like many of the other elderly men at the Utah Ukulele Festival, was a veteran. A retired lieutenant colonel who fought in Korea and Vietnam.

• 3. James Noboru Takane

  • 1 Oct 2025
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  • FamilySearch

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  James Noboru Takane
  Male
  20 November 1930 – 27 May 2023
  •
  KW8F-7MD

  [...]

  Brief Life History of James Noboru

  When James Noboru Takane was born on 20 November 1930, in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, United States, his father, [redacted], was 34 and his mother, [redacted], was 32. He married [his wife] on 10 March 1956, in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, United States. He lived in Representative District 4, Oahu, Hawaii, United States in 1940. He died on 27 May 2023, in Washington, Utah, United States, at the age of 92.