KUNMING -- A man was sentenced to death Friday for murdering 19 people, including three children and his own parents, according to a local court in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The people's court of Huize county found Yang Qingpei guilty of murdering his parents in their home in Yema village on Sept. 28 last year after they refused to give him money.

Fearing he would be discovered, Yang killed 17 villagers with a pickaxe and fled to Yunnan's provincial capital Kunming.

Police arrested Yang the following day.

Yang, who was born in 1989, pleaded guilty to all charges and apologized to the relatives of the dead when he went on trial on July 19.

He accepted the sentence and said he will not appeal.