Northwest Indiana man trapped in Japan after being convicted of sexual assault fights to clear his name

A northwest Indiana man trapped in Japan for four years, fighting to clear his name.

Christopher Payne was convicted of sexually assaulting a Japanese woman, in a case that hinged heavily on DNA evidence.

There are so many issues with the DNA evidence in the case that Payne’s conviction has been overturned, and a retrial has been ordered. However, Chris is now facing severe health challenges, and his mother says she’s not sure how much longer he can survive in solitary confinement.

Pressing her palm against the inked outline of a hand is the closest Ronda Payne has come to a hug from her only child in more than four years. The outline was traced by Christopher inside his prison cell in Japan, half a world away.

“It’s the only physical thing that I have other than his letters,” Ronda said.

His words are a stark contrast to the young, adventure-loving Crown Point native who moved to Japan in 2013 after teaching himself Japanese as a teenager. He worked several jobs, including as an English teacher, and even found success in mixed martial arts.

The mother and son visited each other regularly until Nov. 25, 2021, when she got a call from a Japanese phone number she didn’t recognize.

“So I picked the phone up, and it was Chris’ boss. ‘Chris wanted me to let you know he’s been arrested,’” she said. “I said, ‘ Is it bad?’ They said, ‘It’s bad.’ What is it? A woman was attacked.”

But here comes the first of several twists—the crime had happened three years before.

In July of 2018, in the city of Ichikawa, a masked man followed a woman from a train station, threatened her, and sexually assaulted her while speaking fluent Japanese. Afterward, investigators recovered only trace DNA evidence from her mouth—mixed with her own—after she spat and rinsed her mouth before contacting police.

In a completely unrelated incident, in February 2020, Chris was arrested after drunkenly falling asleep in the entryway of a stranger’s home and consented to a voluntary DNA swab, not thinking twice about it. Then, in November 2021, police said they discovered that the DNA was “consistent” with that of the woman’s attacker.

“After that day, life stopped for me. It was over,” Ronda said.

“So, the victim originally reported to the police that she believed he was Japanese. He spoke during the attack, and spoke in perfectly unaccented Japanese, which is pretty much impossible to do for a non-native speaker,” said freelance journalist Gavin Blair.

Blair, who has lived and worked in Japan for more than two decades, began covering Chris’ case late last year. Not only did Chris not match the original suspect description, but the DNA evidence was anything but solid.

“They tested Chris’ DNA before the crime scene sample, which, as one of his lawyers described it, is like having the answer to the question before you take the test,” he said.

“It looked like they had… that they had been edited in some way,” said forensic DNA consultant Simon Ford. 

Ford said he requested the underlying DNA data and found several significant issues.

Not only had the DNA files from the crime scene been edited to look more like Chris’ DNA — without any disclosure — but Ford discovered the DNA expert, appointed by the prosecution, also ran the test 34 times.

“What he did was he tested it over and over again, trying to hit the right value,” Ford said.

He said the DNA evidence would not have met admissibility standards in the United States.

“I think that this evidence really should just be disregarded,” Ford said.

After years of Chris refusing to confess to a crime he didn’t commit, these revelations were so significant that his legal team convinced the Tokyo High Court to overturn his guilty verdict in December of last year, and sent the case back to the Chiba District Court for a retrial.

After years of trying to convince anyone who would listen that her son was innocent and speaking out against Japan’s infamous legal practice, where suspects are held in prolonged pre-trial detention to coerce confessions, the high court’s ruling was an incredible turn of events, but not one that brought him home. Chris was denied bail until his retrial.

Blair said it could be another two or three years, but it’s not impossible to get the retrial.

“Prosecutors have huge amounts of power. Even judges are kind of wary of challenging their power,” he said.

As for Chris’ family.

“He has not talked on a phone. He has not hugged a person. He has not done anything in four years,” Ronda said. “As a mother, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I would not.”

And his legal time are trying to raise awareness of his case…

“His case is like a concentration of issues the Japanese justice system has,” said Kiyomi Tsunogae, Chris’ attorney.

And hopefully put some pressure on the court system. Recently, that urgency has deepened after Chris suffered repeated episodes of vomiting blood and persistent headaches. Concerns are now raised that he could die before the case is retried or before a final decision.

“That’s what I’m afraid of. me and other lawyers, too, and other supporters. Really, it’s, we are not exaggerating,” Tsunogae said.

He’s spent four years in solitary confinement. Chris sketched a picture of the cell — a tiny space that closes in around him day by day.

Meanwhile, his mother says she won’t stop speaking out until she can hold her son in her arms.

“That’s our baby,” she said.

Instead of the letters he sends from the other side of the world.

“I will keep surviving,” Ronda read. “I’m tired, mom, but I won’t disappoint you.”

CBS News Chicago reached out to Indiana Congressman Frank Mrvan about the case. His office reached out to the U.S. ambassador to Japan in May of 2025 and was told a consular officer had been conducting regular visits. He also reached out again last week in light of Payne’s now urgent health concerns.

Chris’ family also started a petition demanding due process for him in Japan, posted on Change.org.

U.S. senators from Indiana were also contacted, but neither could provide any guidance on the case. There is also no word yet from the U.S. Embassy in Japan.