TOKYO — A Japanese court sentenced a man to death on Thursday after finding him guilty of murder and other crimes regarding an arson attack on an anime studio in Kyoto, Japan that killed 36 people.

According to The Associated Press, the Kyoto District Court said it found the defendant, Shinji Aoba, mentally capable to face punishment for his crimes and announced the sentence of capital punishment after a recess in a two-part session on Thursday.

Aoba reportedly stormed into Kyoto Animation’s No 1 studio on July 18, 2019, and set it on fire. Many of the victims were believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning. More than 30 other people were badly burned or injured.

AP News said Judge Keisuke Masuda in sentencing, revealed that Aoba had wanted to be a novelist but was unsuccessful and so he sought revenge. He allegedly believed that Kyoto Animation had stolen novels he submitted as part of a company contest. It was also reported that Aoba, who was out of work and struggling financially after repeatedly changing jobs, had plotted a separate attack on a train station north of Tokyo a month before the arson attack on the animation studio.

Aoba, 45, was severely burned and was hospitalised for 10 months before his arrest in May 2020. He appeared in court in a wheelchair.

AP News reports that the fire was Japan’s deadliest since 2001.