A judge on Tuesday formally dismissed the case against a Japanese businessman who hanged himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial for allegedly plotting his wife's death 27 years ago during a visit to Los Angeles.

Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, was found dead Friday, four days before he was to be arraigned on a charge of conspiring to commit murder. A police report indicated no foul play is suspected and that Miura did not leave a note.

The coroner has yet to state a cause of death.

The case became a sensation in Japan, where it was known as "the Japanese O.J. case," and many Japanese journalists swarmed the hallway Tuesday outside the courtroom where his arraignment had been scheduled.

Miura was last seen alive by an officer who checked his jail cell Friday night. Less than 10 minutes later, a detention officer found him hanging "with a ligature around his neck at one end of the bunk bed," according to a police report attached to the dismissal order.

Police have said the ligature was made from pieces of Miura's shirt.

The judge's dismissal order, requested by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, capped a case that included several bizarre twists.

The case began Nov. 18, 1981, when Miura and his wife Kazumi were shot by unknown assailants in a downtown Los Angeles parking garage after a day of sightseeing. Miura was shot in the leg and recovered, but his wife was shot in the head and died after lingering in a coma for a year.

Miura was convicted in 1994 in Japan of plotting his wife's death and was sentenced to life in prison, but the Japanese Supreme Court reversed the case and acquitted Miura in 2003.

Los Angeles County charged Miura with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1988. He was arrested in February during a trip to the U.S. territory of Saipan and extradited to the United States to face the murder conspiracy charge.