Court rejects defendant's claim of April Fools' prank in 1st trial

A medical student at a prestigious university in Shanghai was sentenced to death on Tuesday for murdering his roommate with poison in April 2013.

Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court convicted Lin Senhao, 28, a postgraduate student at Fudan University's School of Medicine, of intentional homicide.

The court said Lin felt animosity over trivial matters toward Huang Yang, who was also a medical postgraduate student at the university.

At the conclusion of the trial, Lin wore an army-green coat and sat with a blank expression as he listened to the judge reviewing the case and listing the evidence before the verdict was given.

According to the court, Lin stole the deadly toxic chemical N-Nitrosodimethylamine from the lab at Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital where he worked as an intern. He contaminated the water in a dispenser in their dormitory on March 31.

Exposure to the chemical in humans may cause liver damage and affect the blood, according to doctors.

Huang soon became sick after drinking the water on the morning of April 1 and died of organ failure 15 days later.

The trial centered on whether Lin intended to kill Huang.

Lin admitted he had added the toxic chemical to the water but denied trying to kill Huang. He said his aim was only to play a prank for April Fools' Day.

Prosecutors insisted Lin had killed Huang intentionally because he didn't provide the police with honest testimony when they made their initial inquiries. On April 12, however, he was detained by police after his fellow students reported him.

Lin was a medical student and had also participated in experiments and research with such highly toxic chemicals. He should know the harmful effects of the chemical involved and had intended to commit murder, prosecutors said.

The court said Lin's crime was extremely serious. Though he confessed to police after he was taken into custody, this was not enough to win him a lenient sentence.

Lin's father said he will appeal the verdict. One of Lin's relatives told China Daily the family will seek a second trial and hire a new lawyer.

The case has received attention nationwide, with some attributing the act to the absence of ethics education in schools.

"The case has exposed some problems in China's education system," said Sun Baohong, a researcher from Shanghai Youth Research Institute under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

"Students, parents and education authorities have paid a lot of attention to academic performance, but perhaps something that is more important is often ignored," he said.

The case has revived memories of a similar case in 1994 when 21-year-old chemical major Zhu Ling at Tsinghua University in Beijing was poisoned with the heavy metal thallium.

The girl was left with serious brain damage and permanent physical impairments.

Zhu's roommate was suspected, but she wasn't charged because of a lack of evidence, and the case remains unsolved.

wanghongyi@chinadaily.com.cn