A former pitcher for the Pacific League's Chiba Lotte Marines will remain behind bars after the Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld the life sentence he received for the murder of a maid.

Presiding Judge Atsushi Senba backed the life term the Saitama District Court handed down to former baseball player Hiroshi Ogawa, 43, for the murder of 67-year-old maid Kazuko Nishiuchi in 2004.

"The crime can only be referred to as malicious, and considering the gravity of its results, it is not possible to claim the punishment handed down in the lower court was unfair," Senba said as he upheld the district court ruling.

Ogawa committed the murder on the night of Nov. 18, 2004, when he went to the home of his company's chairman to seek help over the massive debts he had built up and was struggling to repay.

Nishiuchi, the live-in maid of the chairman, was there to greet Ogawa and refused his request for a loan.

The ex-Marines hurler shoved Nishiuchi to the ground, knocking her out, and then stole about 1.75 million yen in cash from the company's coffers. He dumped the still unconscious old woman into a river, where she drowned.